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Gamma radiation effects on graphite

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 GAMMA RADIATION EFFECTS ON GRAPHITE
D.S.C. Gomes1, A.C.S. Mota1, M.A. Rodrigues1, W.N. Mussel2, A.P. Santos1, C.A. Furtado1, M.P. Ferreira1
1Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear-CNEN/CDTN

2Departamento de Química - ICEx - UFMG

Av. Pres. Antônio Carlos 6627, Campus da UFMG – Pampulha 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, MG – Brazil
dannycavanellas@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
Graphite is an allotropic form of carbon, comprising several 4000
Raman Spectra - Flake 5

stacked layers of graphene, where the carbon atoms are tightly 3500

packed into a two-dimensional network of successive hexagons. 3000

The study of the characteristics and properties of graphite has 2500

Intensity (a.u.)
Non-irradiated
gained prominence in recent decades, mainly due to the advent of First irradiation
2000
Second irradiation
carbon nanomaterials, especially graphene. Compared to carbon Third irradiation
1500
nanotubes, graphenes attract attention because of their
outstanding mechanical and electrical properties. Traditional 1000

methods of obtaining graphene consist of chemical or physical 500

exfoliation of natural graphite. Considerable attention has been 0

given to studying the effects of  ray irradiation on materials, in -500

1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900
direct view applications, such as shielding, for example, but also Wavenumber (cm )
-1

the use of radiation by means of changing the material properties

and characteristics that may not be possible under other Figure 3 – Raman results for flake 5 – DG region
conditions. Therefore, we wish to verify the effect of  irradiation in
the structure of graphite, seeking an alternative route for obtaining
graphene with a high degree of purity.
EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS
Natural graphite flakes were irradiated under 370 kGy, 740 kGy
and 2000 kGy, in an 60Co irradiating source. In order to collimate
the radiation beam, the flakes were placed inside two lead bricks.
X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron
microscopy were used to evaluate the systems before and after
each irradiation. Figure 4 – SEM images of non-irradiated graphite (left) and
irradiated graphite (right).
CONCLUSION
The measurements of X-ray diffraction along with Raman
spectroscopy suggest that initially  radiation generates defects in
the structure of graphite, but after higher doses, a rearrangement
Figure 1 – Scheme of collimation of  radiation incident in flakes. occurs, and the presence of defects tends to decrease.
3500000
XRD - Flake 5
REFERENCES
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[1] FENG, Y. et al. The effect of gamma ray irradiation on the
structure of graphite and multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Carbon, v.
2500000

Non-irradiated
60, p. 186-192, 2013.
Intensity (a.u.)

2000000 First irradiation [2] NOVOSELOV, K. S. et al. Electric Field effect in atomically thin
Second irradiation
1500000
Third irradiation carbon films. Science, v.306, n.5696, p. 666-669, 2004.
[3] WOODS, R. J.; PIKAEV, A. K. Applied radiation chemistry:
1000000
radiation processing. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1994.
500000
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
0
To J.P. Nascimento – CNEN/CDTN, L. C. Ladeira – CNEN/CDTN,
25.0 25.5 26.0 26.5 27.0 27.5 28.0 A. Temoteo – CNEN/CDTN, L.Faria – CNEN/CDTN.
2 (Degree)

Figure 2 – XRD results for flake 5.

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