Graphene oxide- boro-phosphate glass nano-composite thin films synthesized by sol-gel spin coating method

Abstract

Boro-phosphate glass-graphene oxide nanocomposites combine nanocarbon electrical properties with optical and host properties of glass with potential uses as optoelectronic, photonic materials and for bio-applications. A sol-gel glass from the zinc-boro-phosphate system was combined with graphene oxide in ethanol and further deposited by spin-coating on glass substrates at different rotation speeds. The samples were treated at 110, 250 and 500 °C. The roughness quality was studied for each sample. SEM images coupled with EDX proved the presence of graphene for all investigated samples, showing morphological changes and loss of carbon with temperature increase. Carbon-oxygen bonds, and specific borophosphate network bonds, were identified by FTIR spectroscopy. Raman spectra allowed the identification of the specific reduced graphene bands as well as the presence of multilayer graphene structures. This work paves the way to produce reduced graphene oxide-glass nanocomposites as thin layers, with potential uses in bio-to-photonic applications.