Characteristic study of exfoliated graphene particles from waste batteries

Waste batteries (AA and AAA models) pose a major concern in waste disposal, and the graphite electrodes in them are also sources for graphene production. Here, solution-based exfoliation is followed to exfoliate graphene using various electrolytes where we observe sulfate-based electrolytes to be more efficient. Solution-based graphene, on Raman spectroscopic analysis, confirms a monolayer, highly conductive graphene (G₁) of size ~ 24 nm with fewer defects and low oxidation levels. This graphene (G₁) is converted to powder form and characterized using UV spectroscopy, FTIR, XRD, FESEM-EDS. Among the as-prepared graphene powders, a multi-layered, amorphous graphene powder (GP₂) having a d-spacing of 3.7 Å with 80% carbon was the pre-eminent sample reported. GP₂ with large graphene films finds its applications in a variety of fields. (author)