Role of thickness and intercalated water in the facile reduction of graphene oxide employing camera flash.
Graphene oxide (GO) is a potential precursor for the bulk production of graphene as the synthetic route is simple and cost-effective. Typically, reduction of GO is a time-consuming process and involves either toxic/hazardous reducing agents or high temperature treatment. Herein, we report the role of intercalated water and thickness of GO films towards the reduction of GO employing simple camera flash. A fast, simple and single camera flash instantaneously causes the deoxygenation reaction of GO without employing hazardous/toxic chemical reductants at room temperature. Successful reduction of GO employing camera flash has been verified via XRD, Raman and UV-vis spectroscopic analyses. Flash-reduced graphene shows a relatively high conductivity value of 740 S m(-1) with a C/O ratio of around 9.5. Intercalated water molecules facilitate the reduction by electron-hole pair formation. It has also been found that the intercalated water facilitates the reduction of GO up to a certain film thickness. However, the intensity of light passing through to the backside of a too thick film decreases significantly, causing incomplete reduction.
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Composite Materials and Structures Center, Engineering Building, Michigan State University, 428 S. Shaw Lane, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
Saswata
S
Bose
Lawrence T
LT
Drzal