Reduction of graphene oxide foils by IR laser irradiation in air

Graphene oxide (GO) micrometric foils have been prepared using a graphene oxide solution. A pulsed IR laser at 970 nm wavelength, with a 100 ms pulse duration and an energy between 50 mJ and 0.7 J, has been employed to irradiate the micrometric GO foils in air. Pulsed IR laser irradiation of GO foils promotes the GO reduction in air and, when the GO foils are tightened between two transparent and thin flat glasses, it permits to realize electrically conductive strips, labelled as rGO. Measurements of laser ablation yield in air as a function of the pulse energy, analysis of elemental composition of the samples before and after the irradiation and morphological characterization have been performed. An estimation of both the temperature induced by the laser treatment and the penetration depth is presented. The so-obtained rGO foils can find many interesting applications in microelectronics, engineering and bio-medicine as sensors, detectors, ion strippers and dosimeters.