N-doped graphene film prepared by rapid thermal shock for ultra-sensitive temperature reading

Abstract

Graphene is restricted by its zero-band gap when applying in functional components. However, its band structure can be adjusted appropriately through nitrogen doping. At present, many nitrogen doping processes have been developed such as chemical vapor deposition, thermal annealing and plasma sputtering, but in general these methods are time-consuming and difficult to control the type of nitrogen atom doped. In this work, an in situ high-temperature thermal shock process, with an extremely fast rate of temperature change of more than 104 K/s, is developed and used to prepare the nitrogen doped graphene (NG) films. This novel N-doped process enables the preparation of NG films within 10 s, which is the fastest to the best of our knowledge. Moreover, the type and content of doped nitrogen atoms can be effectively regulated by controlling the composition of precursor films. Optimally, the nitrogen content of NG film reaches 2.26 %, and the proportion of graphite nitrogen is more than 60 %. The electrical conductivity and the average Seebeck coefficient of the NG film are 13,870 S·m−1 and −46.5 μV/K, respectively. Its thermoelectric power factor reaches 30 μW·m−1·K−1, indicating that the NG film has a good prospect of functional application. Furtherly, A NG film-based temperature reading device is developed, which shows ultra-high accuracy and sensitivity in temperature reading within a rather wide temperature range.