Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide Films using Atmospheric Plasma Annealing

Graphene oxide (GO) is an electrical insulator with good mechanical and thermal properties. It exhibits increased conductivity when the Carbon to Oxygen ratio is high. Our work aims to efficiently fabricate inexpensive flexible reduced graphene oxide films for use as supercapacitor electrodes. For this purpose, an aqueous mixture of GO in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was coated on aluminum foil. The air-dried films were then subjected to one of two different annealing processes which would burn the polymer; atmospheric plasma annealing in a nitrogen atmosphere and furnace annealing in an argon atmosphere. The films were characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction and Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM). FTIR data indicates that annealing at elevated temperatures of 600C will reduce the OH absorption signature at 3320cm-1, demonstrating a reduction in oxygen content. X-ray diffraction data correlate this result with a characteristic RGO signature. In addition, the ESEM results indicate that the Carbon to Oxygen ratio was substantially increased for the annealed samples. The results suggest that atmospheric plasma annealing in a nitrogen atmosphere could be used as a fast reliable method to transform GO to RGO.