A facile strategy for large-scale production of 2D nanosheets exfoliated by three-roll milling

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials, such as graphene, MoS2, and MAX, have attracted increasing research attention in recent years due to their unique structural and performance advantages. However, their complex production processes and equipment requirements are significant issues affecting their widespread use. Here, with an exfoliation strategy using three-roll milling, we present a simple, cost-effective, and extensible method to produce multilayer graphene, BN, MoS2, and Ti3AlC2 nanosheets. The roller and phenolic resin created three kinds of forces on the layered 2D materials, i.e., shear forces, compressive forces, and adhesive forces, which exfoliated layered materials from their edges and surfaces into nanosheets. Subsequently, the exfoliated materials were ultrasonically washed with alcohol, treated with ultrasonic vibration, and centrifuged to obtain 2D nanomaterials. The easy operation and high yield are attractive for research based on the construction of high-performance 2D nanosheet-based devices at low cost. Herein, the obtained multilayer graphene and MoS2 nanosheets were used as anode materials of sodium/potassium-ion batteries, respectively, to test their electrochemical properties. Better performances are obtained compared with their primary bulk materials.

Keywords

• two-dimensional (2d) nanosheets
• exfoliation
• three-roll milling (trm)
• sodium/potassium-ion batteries