Kinetics of the thermal reduction process in graphene oxide thin films from in-situ transport measurements

Abstract

Abstract We investigate the influence of the thermal annealing process on the transport properties of thin films made of graphene oxide. Specially developed methodology allows us to demonstrate that the thermal annealing process of graphene oxide thin films can be described as a kinetic process with one activation energy, which equals 0.94 eV ± 0.12 eV. Moreover, we show that the electrical transport mechanism evolves with the annealing temperature (reduction level) of GO thin films. We have noticed that the Variable Range Hopping transport model change from 3D, 2D to Efros-Shklvoskii with a reduction level. Our findings contribute to further understanding of the role of kinetics in thermal reduction processes of thin films made of graphene oxide and could be useful in applications in which electrical parameters need to be tuned.