Healing of reduced graphene oxide with methane + hydrogen plasma

A method to heal defects in reduced graphene oxide (RGO) is reported, accomplished by using methane + hydrogen plasma. The addition of hydrogen notably shifts the equilibrium between etching and growth of graphene, and suppresses the nucleation of carbon nanoparticles. The best recovery of RGO is observed at 800 °C, resulting in largest integrated Raman 2D/G peak area ratio (0.56) and highest Hall mobility (52 cm2 V−1 s−1). A density functional theory calculation reveals that the repair process is dominated by reaction between the dangling bonds and CH2 and CH radicals.

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