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Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Scalable Syntheses of Graphene Oxide and Reduced Graphene Oxide using Cascade Design Oxidation and Highly Basic Reduction Reactions
Published on: July 3, 2025
Thermally enhanced optical contrast of graphene oxide for thickness identification
Xitao Guo1, Jinhuan Li2, Yuanfang Yu3
1School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, East China University of Technology, Nanchang, 330013, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
We present a simple, but rapid and accurate approach to identify the layer number of graphene oxide (GO) by using its thermally enhanced optical contrast via vacuum heating. As expected, changes have been observed both in the thicknesses and chemical structures of the material upon the thermal treatment, which can be attributed to the reduction of the amount of intercalated water and oxygen content. This results in the increase of refractive index and absorption coefficient approaching the values for intrinsic graphene. Finally, we achieve an almost complete recovery of optical contrast of GO compared with the one of graphene. The method would be made suitable for the thickness identification of mass-produced GO since it can greatly facilitate sample evaluation and manipulation, and provide immediate feedback to improve synthesis and processing strategies.
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