Tuning electrical properties of graphite oxide by plasma

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Condensed Matter Physics

Background:

• Graphite oxide (GO) is a precursor material with tunable electrical properties.
• Controlling the electronic behavior of reduced graphite oxide (RGO) is crucial for electronic applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of ammonia and hydrogen plasma treatments on the electrical properties of graphite oxide.
• To achieve tunable semiconducting and highly conductive reduced graphite oxide (RGO) sheets.

Main Methods:

• Treatment of graphite oxide (GO) samples with ammonia plasma for varying durations (10 to 4.5 min).
• Treatment of GO films with hydrogen:argon (9:1) plasma.
• Characterization of the electrical properties of the resulting reduced graphite oxide (RGO) sheets.

Main Results:

• Tuning of electrical properties (n-type, ambipolar, p-type semiconducting) of RGO by adjusting ammonia plasma time.
• Achieved high electron and hole mobilities of 5.41 and 2.10 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at low voltages.
• Obtained highly conductive RGO with conductivity around 630 S cm⁻¹ using hydrogen:argon plasma treatment.

Conclusions:

• Plasma treatment offers a versatile method for tuning the electrical properties of graphite oxide.
• The developed methods can produce RGO with diverse semiconducting behaviors and high conductivity.
• This work lays the foundation for developing novel carbon-based electronic devices.