Experimental study on the preparation, characterization and conductivity improvement of reduced graphene-oxide papers

• Colloidal suspension of graphene sheets was obtained via a surfactant free hydrothermal method.
• Influence of reduction process on the structure and conductivity of the papers was investigated.
• Paper with perfect cross-section was obtained with chemically reduced graphene oxide suspension.

In the present study, reduced graphene-oxide (r-GO) papers were prepared by vacuum filtration method using chemically obtained graphene oxide as raw materials. Different reduction methods, chemical, thermal or the combination were designed to investigate the influence of reduction process on the structure and conductivity of r-GO papers. The reducibility of the obtained papers was investigated by XPS and Raman. The structure, morphology and electrical conductivity were examined by XRD, SEM and four point resistivity test system, respectively. Results showed that chemical reduction using hydrazine or annealing in reducing ambinent alone was not sufficient to achieve maximum reduction, the highest C/O ratio and highest conductivity was obtained in paper reduced via a combination of hydrazine and thermal annealing treatment. In order to further improve the conductivity of the paper, Ag nanoparticles have been decorated into the paper.

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