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Description of the product/technology that incorporates graphene
Plasma is a partially ionized gas considered as a reactive medium which is constituted by active particles such as electrons and ions, free radicals and high energy photons (UV). The plasma species have enough energy to induce decomposition reactions of the molecules introduced into the discharge. In particular, non-thermal plasmas are characterized by electronic and gas temperature (7000 K and 1200 K, respectively) high enough to decompose organic molecules into their atomic constituents in an effective way (» 99%). These atoms can recombine at the plasma exit forming products different to those initially introduced into the plasma.
Microwave plasmas have been reported as efficient, clean and environmentally friendly catalyst-free method for the synthesis of graphene using alcohol as carbon source. The size of final by-products is limited due to the high electron density which favors the collisions of electrons with the heavy particles avoiding the recombination of the atomic species, coming from the alcohol decomposition, into other products different to the graphene.