The Effect of Microwave Duty Cycle on the Electrical Conductivity of Reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO)

Abstract

Graphene is a 2D material which has attracted a lot of attention due to its various fascinating properties. The most straightforward and facile synthesis method to produce graphene is chemical exfoliation method, which is conducted by reducing the graphene oxide. In this paper, we investigated the effect of microwave duty cycles on the electrical conductivity properties of rGO. The microwave was set at a different variation of duty cycles and reduction times. The reduction process with microwave-assisted was done under nitrogen conditions. The samples were characterized using Fourier transforms infrared spectrometry (FTIR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and four-point probes. The highest conductivity of 18.10 S/cm was observed from rGO samples prepared by the reduction process using hydrazine as reducing agent and treated by high microwave irradiation mode for 3 min under N2 conditions.