Chemical Fabrication and Characterization of Graphene for Water-Based Inks used in Screen-Printing

Abstract

Graphene exhibits a range of interesting properties such as high optical transmittance, good thermal conductivity, high
Young’s modulus, and good electrical conductivity. Graphene can serve as a component in conductive applications and
potentially replace the expensive conductive materials, such as indium tin oxide (ITO), that are used today. In this article
the graphene derivatives graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) are synthesized. The reduction of GO
is done by either microwave assisted reduction, intense light reduction or chemical reduction with hydrogen iodide. The
structures of the synthesized compounds are characterized and analyzed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
and Raman spectroscopy. Based on the synthesized GO, a GO-ink is formulated and screen-printed on a polymer-based
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate, from which a sheet resistance of 0.4 kΩ s−q1 is measured. This work
suggests that the synthesized GO can be used in production of conductive circuits or serve as a precursor for future
scalable conductive films.