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Nano Research

Article Title

Reduced graphene oxide with a highly restored π-conjugated structure for inkjet printing and its use in all-carbon transistors

Keywords

inkjet printing, graphene oxide, high conductivity, field effect transistor

Abstract

An inkjet-printed graphene film is of great importance for next-generation flexible, low cost and high performance electronic devices. However, due to the limitation of the inkjet printing process, the electrical conductivity of inkjet-printed graphene films is limited to ~10 S·cm–1, and achieving a high conductivity of the printed graphene films remains a big challenge. Here, we develop a “weak oxidation– vigorous exfoliation” strategy to tailor graphene oxide (GO) for meeting all the requirements of highly conductive inkjet-printed graphene films, including a more intact carbon plane and suitable size. The π-conjugated structure of the resulting graphene has been restored to a high degree, and its printed films show an ultrahigh conductivity of ~420 S·cm–1, which is tens of times higher than previously reported results, suggesting that, aside from developing a highly efficient reduction method, tuning the GO structure could be an alternative way to produce high quality graphene sheets. Using inkjet-printed graphene patterns as source/drain/gate electrodes, and semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as channels, we fabricated an all-carbon field effect transistor which shows excellent performance (an on/off ratio of ~104 and a mobility of ~8 cm2·V–1·s–1) compared to previously reported CNT-based transistors, promising the use of nanocarbon materials, graphene and SWCNTs in printed electronics, especially where high performance and flexibility are needed.

Graphical Abstract

Publisher

Tsinghua University Press

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