Chemical bonding states and electronic states of reduced graphene oxides studied by real-time photoelectron spectroscopy

Watanabe, Daiki*; Ogawa, Shuichi*; Yamaguchi, Hisato*; Hozumi, Hideaki*; Eda, Goki*; Mattevi, C.*; Yoshigoe, Akitaka ; Ishizuka, Shinji*; Teraoka, Yuden; Yamada, Takatoshi*; Chhowalla, M.*; Takakuwa, Yuji*

The reduction of graphene oxide (rGO) is the most applicable method to obtain the large-area graphene, which is used for a transparence electrode. In order to improve the electric property of rGO, the reduction process of GO must be clarified. In this study, we have investigated the vacuum-annealing induced changes of the chemical bonding states and electronic states of GO, which was treated with and without hydrazine using real-time photoelectron spectroscopy. After annealing, all of oxides and sp components of C1s photoelectron peak decrease while sp and defect components increase. These facts indicate that carbon vacancies are generated by reduction of GO, implying that these vacancies make rGO poor electric property. Fermi edge can be clearly observed in rGO. This result also supports the assumption that the atomic vacancies are generated in the graphene sheets.