Obtención de grafeno a partir de grafito por el método de electrólisis para fabricar un polímero conductor

Abstract

The aim of this curricular integration work was to obtain graphene of few layers in order to impregnate it in a polymer to give it the ability to conduct electricity, firstly, graphene ink was produced through the electrolysis method and the respective quality control was carried out, several characterisation tests were performed in order to know the properties of the ink and the electrical capabilities of the polyurethane sponges by measuring the input potential and the effective potential when forming a simple circuit and data were taken in a margin of 3 minutes. Graphene ink was fabricated based on previous literature using sulphuric acid in the electrolysis mixture with molarity of 0.1M and graphite rods were used as electrodes. The quality verification of the graphene ink was carried out by ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV-Visible), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The quality of the graphene ink was within the standards proposed by the previous work, with an insignificant improvement, while the polyurethane sponges showed a yield of less than 1%. It is concluded that electrolysis is a suitable method to obtain graphene ink of few layers because it met the standards proposed by the characterisation methods, and that the ink impregnation method, although it was not efficient because it did not meet the expectations, it was possible to manufacture a conductive polymer. It is recommended to use graphene ink of higher concentration, in addition to using alternatives in relation to the impregnation method.