Solvothermally exfoliated fluorographene for high-performance lithium primary batteries

• Published in: Nanoscale Vol. 6; no. 5; pp. 2634 - 2641
• Main Authors: Sun, Chuanbin, Feng, Yiyu, Li, Yu, Qin, Chengqun, Zhang, Qingqing, Feng, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01.01.2014
• Subjects: Acetonitriles - chemistry; Chloroform; Chloroform - chemistry; Current density; Electric Power Supplies; Electrodes; Exfoliation; Fluorine - chemistry; Graphite - chemistry; Intercalation; Ions - chemistry; Lithium; Lithium - chemistry; Nanostructure; Nanostructures - chemistry; Primary batteries; Solvents - chemistry; Temperature; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/c3nr04609e

High-quality fluorographene (FG) was prepared by solvothermal exfoliation of fluorinated graphite (F-graphite) through intercalation of acetonitrile and chloroform with low boiling points. High-yield production of FG was demonstrated by wrinkled few-layered structures with disordered edges and poor regularity along the stacking direction. X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra indicated that the intercalation of chloroform led to the partial transformation from covalent C-F bonds to semi-ionic C-F bonds. A lithium primary battery (Li-battery) using a FG cathode exhibited a remarkable discharge rate performance because of good Li + diffusion and charge mobility through nanosheets. FG nanosheets exfoliated using chloroform showed a high specific capacity of 520 mA h g −1 and a voltage platform of 2.18 V at a current density of 1 C, accompanied by a maximum power density of 4038 W kg −1 at 3 C, which is almost four times higher than that of F-graphite. The results indicate that the solvothermal exfoliation using a low-boiling-point solvent is a facile, efficient and high-yield approach to prepare high-purity FG nanosheets for high-performance Li-batteries. Few-layer fluorographene was prepared by solvothermal intercalation of low-boiling-point solvents for lithium primary batteries with high rate performance.