Ambient Condition Production of High Quality Reduced Graphene Oxide

Reduced graphene oxide (GO) becomes one of the most popular materials for applications in various optical, electronic, and sensor devices. Even though many methods are already reported for reduced graphene oxide synthesis, they usually raise issues related to their efficiency, quality, and environmental impact. This work demonstrates a simple, environmental friendly, and effective method for reducing graphene oxide under ambient conditions using nanosecond infrared laser irradiation. As a result, a Raman band intensity ratio of I(G)/I(D) of 4.59 is achieved with an average crystallite size of ≈90 nm. This graphene is of higher quality than what can be achieved with most of the existing methods. Additionally, the demonstrated reduction technique allows the selective reduction of graphene oxide and control the amount of functional groups on the surface of the material. Gas sensors fabricated according to the proposed technique efficiently detect NO₂, NH₃, and H₂S with the sensitivity down to 10 ppm.