We present a study of the process
of reduction of thin graphene
oxide (GO) films consisting of flakes with lateral size of up to 100
μm through soft ultraviolet irradiation in the argon atmosphere.
It was found out that the reduction process leads to a significant
decrease in the overall content of the basal-plane functional groups,
namely, epoxides and hydroxyls, but with simultaneous increase in
the total number of the edge-located carboxyl groups. Obtained transmission
electron microscopy images showed that this effect is related to formation
of nanoscale holes in the course of reduction. Based on the data obtained,
we have proposed a mechanism of the observed GO structural modification
in terms of photoinduced chemical reactions between the carbon network
and functional groups. These reactions result in progressive growth
of the initially existing and newly formed vacancies with formation
of the nanoholes with size of up to 100 nm. Thus, reduced graphene
oxide films with the restored conjugated network and many edges terminated
with carboxyl groups can be probably obtained via the photoreduction
process in the argon atmosphere and further used in several applications,
such as production of gas sensors and organic light-emitting devices.
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