Graphene is a new type of carbon material with sp2 hybrid carbon atoms arranged into honeycomb hexagonal plane crystals, and the thickness is only a single layer of atoms. It is the basic unit of graphite, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. It has very novel physical and chemical properties and has very important application prospects in new superconducting materials, microelectronics, surface treatment and catalysis. So far, the preparation of graphene materials mainly adopts mechanical stripping, graphite oxide reduction, surface chemical deposition and other methods. There are great difficulties in structure regulation and scale preparation, which limits the development of such new materials in chemistry, especially catalytic materials and other application fields.

On the basis of many years of research on carbon materials, the Nanometer and Interface Catalysis Research Group of the State Key Laboratory of Catalysis Foundation, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new way to prepare high-quality free standing graphene materials using commercial silicon carbide particles as raw materials through high-temperature cracking.

The structure and size of graphene can be controlled by controlling the silicon carbide particles, pyrolysis temperature, rate and atmosphere, which lays a foundation for the research and application of graphene as a new electrode material and catalytic material. The research results were published in the latest issue of Advanced Materials.