In order to verify the chemical functionalization and understand the chemical composition, carbon fibres spray coated by EEG and EEA flakes were characterised by SEM and EDS analysis (Fig. ). The result suggests that weight fractions of oxygen (O), silicon (Si) and nitrogen (N) elements increased after the APTES functionalization (with detailed information summarized in Table ). The XRD patterns (Fig. ) show the graphitic peak (002) shifts to lower angles (2θ) after both electrochemical exfoliation and silanization, with the value decreased from 26.7° (original graphite tape), to 26.5° (EEG flakes), and finally 26.3° (EEA flakes). This indicates the expansion of graphite layers caused by the introduction of oxygen and silane groups (As seen in Fig. ), thus confirmed the success of the exfoliation and functionalization. or hydroxyl groups) , as shown in Fig. , and confirmed the functionalization was achieved. Noticeably, there is no obvious band in the 1700-1740 cm -1 range for either EEG or EEA flakes, which is related to the C=O in carbonyl and carboxyl groups .