Graphene oxide multilayers: Synthesis, properties and possible applications in electronics

Preparation of graphene via oxidization and subsequent exfoliation of graphite is one of the most common techniques. However, this technique has the disadvantages of being time consuming and environmentally toxic for large-scale production. Therefore, in this work we proposed and employed a new, simple, cost-effective pyrolytic method to synthetize graphene oxide multilayers samples (GO) by using the bamboo pyroligneous acid (BPA) as material source. The GO-BPA samples were synthesized by using the double thermal decomposition (DTD)-method under controlled nitrogen atmosphere in an automated pyrolysis system for different carbonization temperatures varying from 673 to 973 K. The morphological, structural, compositional, vibrational, electrical and magnetic properties were studied and it was found that GO-BPA samples exhibit nanoplatelets morphology with thicknesses varying from 25 to 100 nm and lateral size varying from 5 to 100 μm, polycrystalline structure with crystal size varying from 1.3 to 1.9 nm, vibrational characteristics of thermal isolator material with conduction mainly by phonon-phonon interaction, electrical behavior as narrow band-gap semiconductor system at band-gap values varying from 0.11 to 0.30 eV with conduction mainly by carrier-impurity interaction and magnetic properties of soft material with ferromagnetism order observed at room temperature showing saturation magnetization around 40 × 10-
³
emu/g induced mainly by boundary defects presence in the samples. These results revealed a DTD-method as a new technique to obtain graphene oxide multilayers with high stability and reproducibility in its transport properties and suggest these samples in some possible applications in electronics as sensors and devices.