Effect of Surface Treatment on XPS Test of Graphene Films

Abstract

Graphene was attended widely in recent years because of its excellent performance in electrical, mechanical, optical and magnetic applications. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is commonly used tools for studying the chemical binding state, chemical modification, heteroatom dopants and quantitative chemical composition of graphene. In this work, XPS characterization of graphene films, obtained through reduction and then thermal treatment of graphene oxide films, was studied. The XPS of the graphene films are performed by direct testing, Ar+ etching, and direct peeling of the surface layer. The result shows that for graphene film, direct peeling is a simple and easy to use low-cost treatment, which can also be extended to XPS testing of other two-dimensional (2D) materials.