Highly Conductive Reduced Graphene Oxide Films for High Performance Electronic Devices

石墨烯已被证明是一种真正独特的材料，并保持着许多物理参数的纪录。预计石墨烯作为一种高导电性和透明性的材料将创造出一种具有优异耐用性和弯曲自由度的新型电子器件。然而，尽管最近在大规模制造大面积石墨烯薄片方面取得了重大进展，但制造方法仍然需要大量的努力和复杂的多阶段材料处理。为此，该奖项的目标是从微米级的还原石墨烯氧化物薄片中制造高导电性的石墨烯基薄膜，这种氧化石墨烯可以从自然生成的石墨中获得。该项目的制造方法是环保的，不涉及有毒有机溶剂，并使用传统的工业设备。这种方法具有迅速成长为工业规模的巨大潜力，从而提高美国制造业的竞争力并创造就业机会。在这项工作中，将作出重大努力，增加希望攻读科学和工程高级学位的学生人数，特别是人数偏少的少数群体和妇女。学生将从该项目的跨学科性质和实践方法中受益匪浅。这项工作的最终目标是设计和理解一种稳健和可扩展的纳米制造方法，通过简单的浸渍涂覆工艺辅助聚合物吸附层来制备高导电性、高度柔韧性和透明的氧化石墨烯(RGO)基纳米层或薄膜。该方法基于将单独的氧化石墨烯(GO)薄片包裹在几纳米厚的聚合物层中，允许通过可扩展的传统浸渍涂层近乎完美地形成GO单分子层。浸渍后的GO/RMS(反应性高分子超分散膜)单分子膜上吸附沉积了一层聚合物中间层。聚合物中间层被用来促进第二GO单层的形成(通过浸渍涂覆)，并在GO还原过程中提供碳原子连接底部和上层的RGO单层。这项工作直接解决了大规模纳米制造rGO基导电透明柔性薄膜的一些重大挑战。具体地说，预计该研究制造方法将允许在非导电衬底上直接和可重复地制造致密的GO单分子层，以单层精度控制RGO层的厚度，并实现所制造层的高相干性和稳健性。在性能方面，该项目的目标是在非导电氧化物表面制造高导电性(低方阻)和透明(可见光区域低吸光度)的rGO基纳米薄膜。

Graphene has proven to be a truly unique material and the record holder for a number of physical parameters. It is expected that employment of graphene as a highly conductive and transparent material would create a new class of electronic devices characterized by excellent durability and flexural freedom. However, despite recent significant progress in scaling up fabrication of large area graphene sheets the fabrication methods still require significant effort and sophisticated multistage handling of the material. To this end, this award targets the manufacture of highly conductive graphene-based films from micron-scale sheets of reduced-graphene oxide, which can be obtained from naturally occurring graphite. The manufacturing method in this project is environmentally friendly, does not involve toxic organic solvents, and utilizes conventional industrial equipment. The approach has a significant potential to rapidly grow to industrial scale and, therefore, increase the competitiveness of US based-manufacturing and create employment opportunities. In course of the work significant effort will be directed to increase the numbers of students, especially underrepresented minorities and women, who wish to pursue advanced degrees in science and engineering. Students will benefit greatly from this project's interdisciplinary nature and hands-on approach.The ultimate goal of this work is the design and understanding of a robust and scalable nanomanufacturing method for the fabrication of highly conductive, highly flexible, and transparent reduced graphene oxide (rGO) based nano-scale layers or films via a facile dip-coating process assisted with polymer adsorbed layers. The method is based on enveloping individual graphene oxide (GO) sheets in few nm thick polymer layers allowing for near-perfect formation of the GO monolayer by scalable conventional dip-coating. After the dip-coating a polymer interlayer is deposited on the GO/ RMS (reactive macromolecular super-spreader) monolayer by adsorption. The polymer interlayer is employed to promote formation of the second GO monolayer (by dip-coating) and provide carbon atoms to connect the bottom and upper rGO monolayers during the GO reduction. This work directly addresses a number of the grand challenges for the large-scale nanomanufacturing of rGO-based conductive transparent flexible films. Specifically, it is expected that the research manufacturing method will allow the straightforward and reproducible fabrication of tight GO monolayers on non-conductive substrates, control of the thickness of the rGO layer with single layer precision, and achieve high coherency and robustness of the fabricated layer. In terms of properties, the project targets the manufacture of highly conductive (low sheet resistance) and transparent (low absorbance in visible region) rGO-based nanoscale films on non-conductive oxide surfaces.