Reduction of graphene oxide films on Al foil for hybrid transparent conductive film applications

We report the reduction of graphene oxide (G-O) films on Al foil using hydrogen as a reducing agent generated during the etching of Al foil in an aqueous solution of hydrochloric acid (HCl). Complete etching of the Al substrate results in simultaneous reduction and a free standing film composed of stacked and overlapped reduced graphene oxide (RG-O) platelets. Generation of hydrogen at the G-O/Al interface increases the reduction efficiency of this method that is demonstrated in better electrical conductivity of the obtained films compared to the RG-O films reduced by the similar method but using remote Al foil in HCl solution and hydrazine reduced RG-O films. By transferring the free standing RG-O films onto Ag NW films, hybrid transparent conductive films (TCFs) with opto-electrical properties comparable to that of ITO films were obtained.