Synthesis Of Graphene Powders From Hydrothermally Produced Nickel Catalyst By Using Alcohol Catalytic Chemical Vapor Deposition

Mass production of high-quality graphene powder is important for various applications. In general, graphene powders were produced on large industrial scale by chemical processes and liquid-phase exfoliation of graphite. However, strong-interaction-induced interlayer aggregation usually leads to the degradation of their intrinsic properties. Moreover, the crystallinity or layer-thickness controllability is not so perfect for advanced technologies. Here, we report a facile hydrothermal method to produce nickel (Ni) as catalyst to grow graphene by alcohol catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Different CVD processing times have been investigated in order to obtain the optimized condition for graphene synthesis. The as-prepared Ni was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Meanwhile, the Raman spectrum shows that the optimized time for effective graphene synthesis is 5 min. This CVD system and the Ni catalyst are scalable and low cost, thus suitable for high quality graphene synthesis.