Controllable self-propagating reduction of graphene oxide films for energy-efficient fabrication

초록

The reduction of graphene oxide (GO) generally involves the use of chemical agents or high-temperature processes, raising concerns about safety, environment, and energy consumption issues. While self-propagating reduction of GO films was observed to produce functional rGO, potentially mitigating these issues, its process control has not yet been extensively explored. This study proposes a controllable self-propagating reduction of GO films by adjusting the base temperature of the films within low values (50°C-90°C). For understanding the reduction mechanism, the speed and peak temperature of the moving reduction front were measured in real-time, and a heat transfer model was proposed to explain the self-propagating reduction based on the observed reduction kinetics. When used for binder-free supercapacitor electrodes, the rGO films exhibited competitive specific capacitance (112 F/g) and excellent capacitance retention (94%) after 10 000 cycles. This study opens a new avenue for efficiently exploiting the self-propagating reduction of GO films to produce high-quality rGO at a minimal energy cost. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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