Flash reduction of inkjet printed graphene oxide on flexible substrates for electronic applications

Graphene based nanomaterials open a new horizon in the electronic devices due to the unique and superior properties of graphene. The deposition of graphene based materials has significant effects on their final properties. Moreover, deposited graphene based samples are reduced by chemical or thermal reduction methods. To save time and energy compared to conventional approaches, advanced methods such as photonic curing have been recently developed and reported. The aim of our study is to fabricate thin layer of reduced graphene oxide on the flexible substrate which can be used as a sensing part in mechanical, environmental or biological sensors. The graphene oxide dispersion in deionized water was inkjet printed on oxygen plasma treated polyimide substrate (Kapton, TM), and then reduced by Xenon flash. The energy of each pulse, pulse amplitude and width were adjusted to achieve the optimum flash settings for inkjet-printed graphene oxide. The cured samples were characterized to observe influence of different processing conditions of the reduced GO films.