Physical properties and device applications of graphene oxide

TL;DR

This review discusses the atomic structures, physical properties, and diverse device applications of graphene oxide, emphasizing how its controllable oxygen groups enable high-performance electronic, optical, and thermoelectric devices.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in understanding GO's structure-property relationships and its application in various high-performance devices.

Findings

GO's oxygen groups enable tunable electronic and mechanical properties.

GO-based devices include transistors, sensors, and solar cells.

Controlled oxidation improves device performance.

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO), the functionalized graphene with oxygenated groups (mainly epoxy and hydroxyl), has attracted resurgent interests in the past decade owing to its large surface area, superior physical and chemical properties, and easy composition with other materials via surface functional groups. Usually, GO is used as an important raw material for mass production of graphene via reduction. However, under different conditions, the coverage, types, and arrangements of oxygen-containing groups in GO can be varied, which give rise to excellent and controllable physical properties, such as tunable electronic and mechanical properties depending closely on oxidation degree, suppressed thermal conductivity, optical transparency and fluorescence, and nonlinear optical properties. Based on these outstanding properties, many electronic, optical, optoelectronic, and thermoelectric devices with high performance can be achieved on the basis of GO. Here we present a comprehensive review on recent progress of GO, focusing on the atomic structures, fundamental physical properties, and related device applications, including transparent and flexible conductors, field-effect transistors, electrical and optical sensors, fluorescence quenchers, optical limiters and absorbers, surface enhanced Raman scattering detectors, solar cells, light-emitting diodes, and thermal rectifiers.