Aggregation prevention: reduction of graphene oxide in mixed medium of alkylphenol polyoxyethylene (7) ether and 2-methoxyethanol

Graphene has attracted great interest due to its extensive applications in optoelectronic and electronic circuits and devices. However, reduction of graphene oxide (GO) to graphene is a process in which hydrophilic GO converts to hydrophobic graphene. Very little is known about the aggregation of graphene and the cause of performance degradation by general chemical reduction methods as the single reaction medium presents difficulty in satisfying the good dispersion of hydrophilic GO and hydrophobic graphene simultaneously. In this paper, we report a mixed medium of alkylphenol polyoxyethylene (7) ether (OP-7) and 2-methoxyethanol (EGM) for the preparation of graphene. The strong polar nature of EGM provides a good dispersion environment for GO, while the π–π interaction between the π-electrons in nonionic surfactant OP-7 aromatic ring structure and the π-electrons in graphene make the hydrophobic graphene well dispersed and prevent aggregation. Moreover, the reduction temperature is not high and the reduction time is short. The electrical conductivity of graphene without high-temperature treatment reached 14 000 S m(−1). We have found the potential reduction mechanism of graphene and fundamentally solved the problem of aggregation. Our findings make it possible to process graphene materials using low-cost mixed medium processing techniques, providing a valuable reference for the large-scale preparation of graphene.