Environmentally benign and facile reduction of graphene oxide by flash light irradiation

In this work, we demonstrate an environmentally benign and facile flash light irradiation process to reduce graphene oxide (GO). GO thin films were prepared by a vacuum filtration process, and these films were reduced by exposure to flash light irradiation for a few milliseconds at room temperature under ambient conditions. Flash light conditions such as energy, pulse width, and pulse number were varied to determine optimal conditions for this photothermal reduction of GO. The flash light irradiation treatment completely reduced the GO thin films, transforming them into pure graphene films. The resulting graphene films were characterized by x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis.