CONCLUSIONS

With VIB-co -VI-co -Py serving as a water-soluble polymer stabilizer, the high-shear mixing of graphite in aqueous liquid was demonstrated to be a facile, green, and low-cost method for efficient production of FLG. In particular, PR/V of FLG reaches as high as 0.17 g L-1 h-1, significantly superior to those (1.6 × 10-3 − 8.3 × 10-2 g L-1 h-1) realized by LPE with ≥5.0 L of aqueous liquid. It is ascribed to the combined contributions of excellent dispersing/stabilizing ability of VIB-co -VI-co -Py on FLG, little formation of large-sized micelles at high CP (>3.0 mg mL-1) under high-shear mixing, and little effect ofCG,i on shear force transmission. The harvested FLG shows high quality (few basal defects) and excellent electrical conductivity (up to 4.0 × 104 S m-1), allowing for preparation of the flexible and conductive FLG films as a potential alternative to brittle ITO films. Furthermore, the FLG material exhibits a favorable redispersibility in water with CG as high as 3.87 mg mL-1. These merits together with low stabilizer content (down to 6.8 wt%) render the shear-exfoliated FLG very useful in various applications from polymer composites to electronics, especially those where FLG has to interface aqueous environment and/or only a small amount of stabilizer is allowed. Therefore, this work represents a meaningful attempt to forward the practical applications of graphene. In that direction, it is highly desirable for high-quality graphene or FLG to be mass produced in an economical and eco-friendly way.