Horizontally Aggregation of Monolayer Reduced Graphene Oxide Under Deep UV Irradiation in Solution

Abstract

Graphene has been widely used in novel optoelectronic devices in decades. Nowadays, fabrication of large size monolayer graphene with spectral selectivity is highly demanded. Here, we report a simple method for synthesizing large size monolayer graphene with chemical functionalized groups in solution. The few layer nano-graphene can be exfoliated into monolayer nano-graphene under short time UV irradiation in protic solution. The exfoliated monolayer nano-graphene could experience deoxygenation during long time UV exposure. At the same time, the edge of nano-graphene could be activated under deep UV exposure and small size nano-graphene sheets further aggregate horizontally in solution. The size of aggregated rGO increase from 40 nm to a maximum of 1 μm. This approach could be one promising cheap method for synthesizing large size monolayer reduced graphene oxide in the future.