Temperature and environment effects on the graphene oxide reduction via electrical conductivity studies

In this article, we report a study carried out to understand how changes in environment and temperature, in which the graphene oxide (GO) film reduction occurs, alter the electrical properties of the resulting films. In fact, it is possible to improve the GO reduction efficiency by choosing suitable environment and temperature. To this purpose, three different environments (high vacuum, air and nitrogen) and three dissimilar temperatures (177 °C, 300 °C and 600 °C) have been chosen, as suggested by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements. Among the investigated thermally reduced graphene oxide films, the ones treated at 600 °C in nitrogen have shown to possess higher electrical conductivity. Such an enhanced electrical conductivity can be attributed to reduction of oxygen functional groups and restoration of sp2 carbon network, as confirmed by Raman spectra.