Thermally-driven structural changes of graphene oxide multilayer films deposited on glass substrate

• Graphene oxide (GO) multilayer films were reduced using thermal reduction methods.
• Surface morphology and structural properties were investigated.
• Thermal reduction methods strongly affected surface morphology.
• Reduction of GO produced more ordered graphene-like structure multilayer films.

Graphene oxide (GO) has been recognized as an important intermediate compound for a potential low-cost large-scale graphene-like film fabrication. In this work, graphene oxide multilayer films deposited on glass substrate were reduced using different thermal reduction methods, including low-temperature annealing, flame-induced and laser reduction, and the corresponding surface morphology and structural properties were investigated. These graphene oxide thermal reduction methods strongly affected surface morphology and differently facilitated structural and chemical transformations of graphene oxide. As evidenced by Raman measurements, thermal annealing and laser reduction of graphene oxide produced more ordered graphene-like structure multilayer films. However, surface morphological differences were observed and attributed to the different de-oxidation mechanisms of GO. This Letter provides an important systematic comparison between the GO reduction methods and thermally-driven structural changes they provide to the reduced GO multilayer films obtained.