Capsule-embedded reduced graphene oxide: synthesis, mechanism and electrical properties

We report the synthesis of capsule-embedded reduced graphene oxide (rGO) by photocatalytic reduction in the presence of peanut shaped a-Fe2O3 particles under visible light. This process is able to produce highly stabilized water dispersible rGO without the help of a stabilizer, which is suitable to make thin films on a glass substrate by the drop casting method. In addition, the evolution of the morphology with different visible light exposure times ranging from 5 to 120 minutes reveals that the catalyst leads to transformation of a few rGO sheets into capsules via a core–shell structure. These capsules are stable on
the rGO sheet at a vacuum of 109 Torr, but unstable under vacuum annealing at 400 C and 105 Torr that created imp-ressions on the rGO film. The bandgap of the capsule-embedded rGO decreases nonlinearly with the visible light exposure time; from 2.47 eV at 5 min to 1.73 eV at 120 min. The vacuum annealed rGO films on glass substrates show an electrical conductivity of 2000 S m1 at 300 K and the conduction is dominated by two-dimensional variable range hopping. The formation of capsules is described based on electrostatic interactions in association with the dipole force of the monodispersed peanut shaped a-Fe2O3 particles, whereas, the bandgap opening and high conductivity are attributed to the residual oxygen funct-ional groups such as carbonyl (>C]O) and epoxy (C–O–C) on the rGO, in addition to the modulated surface morphology.