A method of producing isolated graphene sheets directly from a graphitic material, comprising: a) mixing multiple particles of a graphitic material and multiple particles of a solid carrier material to form a mixture in an impacting chamber of an energy impacting apparatus; b) operating the impacting apparatus for peeling off graphene sheets from the graphitic material and transferring these graphene sheets to surfaces of solid carrier material particles to produce graphene-coated solid particles inside the impacting chamber; c) separating the graphene sheets from the solid carrier material particle surfaces to recover isolated graphene sheets. The method enables production of graphene sheets directly from a graphitic material without going through a chemical intercalation or oxidation procedure. The process is fast (hours as opposed to days of conventional processes), has low or no water usage, environmentally benign, cost effective, and highly scalable.

A method of forming graphite includes carbonizing an upgraded coal, to form a carbonized upgraded coal. The method also includes graphitizing the carbonized upgraded coal, to form the graphite.

Disk shaped fine carbon particles. A fine carbon particle having a diameter of less than 3 microns and a height of less than 0.05 micron substantially in disk form are described. Admixtures with other fine particles are also described.

Lithium ion battery anodes including graphenic carbon particles are disclosed. Lithium ion batteries containing such anodes are also disclosed. The anodes include mixtures of lithium-reactive metal particles such as silicon, graphenic carbon particles, and a binder. The use of graphenic carbon particles in the anodes results in improved performance of the lithium ion batteries.

This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus related to graphene. In one aspect, a method includes submerging a frame support in an etching solution that is contained in a container. A growth substrate, a graphene sheet disposed on the growth substrate, and a primary support disposed on the graphene sheet is placed on a surface of the etching solution. The growth substrate is dissolved in the etching solution to leave the graphene sheet and the primary support floating on a surface of the etching solution. The etching solution in the container is replaced with a washing solution. The washing solution is removed from the container so that the graphene sheet becomes disposed on the frame support.

A composition suitable for coating a metallic substrate that is susceptible to corrosion is disclosed. The composition comprises a carrier medium and graphene platelets in which the graphene platelets comprise between 0.002 wt % and 0.09 wt % of the coating, and the graphene platelets comprise one of or a mixture of two or more of graphene nanoplates, bilayer graphene nanoplates, few-layer graphene nanoplates, and/or graphite flakes in which the graphite flakes have one nanoscale dimension and 25 or less layers.

A conductive composite material of graphene contains graphene nano-sheets and conjugated copolymers. The conjugated copolymers has alkynyl groups and are in a linear structure and grafted to the graphene nano-sheets. The preparation of conductive composite material includes the steps of: pretreating the graphene nano-sheets with 4-bromobenzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate, and forming the conjugated copolymers in the presence of the pretreated graphene nano-sheets. The conductive composite material of graphene can be uniformly dispersed in an electrode slurry, reduce the internal resistance of an electrode, and improve the electrical conductivity of an electrode. At the same time, the flexible structure associated with the graphene nano-sheets can buffer the volume expansion of the silicon-containing negative materials during charge-discharge cycling. Such a composite material can be in a lithium-ion battery.

The present invention discloses a layer-number-controllable graphene derived from natural biomass and a preparation method thereof. The preparation method includes pulverizing 1-100 g of biomass to obtain a 50- to 300-mesh biomass scrap, and drying the biomass scrap at 60-100° C. to obtain a biomass precursor; mixing the biomass precursor with a Bronsted acid solution in a solid-liquid ratio of 0.1:10 to 2:100 g/mL, conducting sealing after discharging oxygen and introducing nitrogen, and then conducting heating for a reaction at 75-95° C. for 1-6 hours to obtain a graphene suspension; and conducting post-treatment on the graphene suspension to obtain a stable graphene dispersion, and then drying the stable graphene dispersion to obtain a graphene powder, where the post-treatment includes one or more of filtration washing, dialysis or ultrasonic treatment. According to the preparation method, the layer-number-controllable graphene is prepared by a mild chemical strategy at relatively low temperature with the biomass having high selectivity as a carbon source. The present invention further provides a layer-number-controllable graphene prepared by the method.

Alloys, emf attenuation materials or emf reception materials, materials for biotechnology or biomedical materials, and materials for toxin and heavy metal removal, each containing a newly discovered allotrope of carbon having a multilayered nanocarbon array, and which exhibits, among other properties, exceptional stability, electrical conductivity and electromagnetic frequency (emf) attenuation characteristics. Members of this new allotrope include nanocarbon structures possessing vast electron delocalization in multiple directions, unavailable to known fullerene-characterized materials like carbon nano-onions (CNOs), multiwalled carbon nano-tubes (MWNTs), graphene, carbon nano-horns, and carbon nano-ellipsoids. Such stabilizing electron delocalization crosses or proceeds between layers, as well as along layers, in multiple directions within a continuous cyclic structure having an advanced interlayer connectivity bonding system involving the whole carbon array, apart from incidental defects.

Provided is a method of producing isolated graphene sheets directly from a biomass, the method including: (A) providing a biomass in a liquid state, solution state, solid state, or semi-solid state; (B) heat treating the biomass and, concurrently or sequentially, using chemical or mechanical means to form graphene domains dispersed in a disordered matrix of carbon or hydrocarbon molecules, wherein the graphene domains are each composed of from 1 to 30 planes of hexagonal carbon atoms or fused aromatic rings and, in the situations wherein there are 2-30 planes in a graphene domain, having an inter-graphene space between two planes of hexagonal carbon atoms or fused aromatic rings no less than 0.4 nm; and (C) separating and isolating these planes of hexagonal carbon atoms or fused aromatic rings to recover graphene sheets from said disordered matrix.