A general synthetic strategy to monolayer graphene

The emergence and establishment of new techniques for material fabrication are of fundamental importance in the development of materials science. Thus, we herein report a general synthetic strategy for the preparation of monolayer graphene. This novel synthetic method is based on the direct solid-state pyrolytic conversion of a sodium carboxylate, such as sodium gluconate or sodium citrate, into monolayer graphene in the presence of Na₂CO₃. In addition, gram-scale quantities of the graphene product can be readily prepared in several minutes. Analysis using Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy clearly demonstrates that the pyrolytic graphene is composed of a monolayer with an average thickness of ∼0.50 nm. Thus, the present pyrolytic conversion can overcome the issue of the low monolayer contents (i.e., 1 wt.%–12 wt.%) obtained using exfoliation methods in addition to the low yields of chemical vapor deposition methods. We expect that this novel technique may be suitable for application in the preparation of monolayer graphene materials for batteries, supercapacitors, catalysts, and sensors. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].