Abstract
Precise tuning chemistry and tailoring nanopores of graphene oxide (GO) thin films are vital for their application for liquid and gas separation. In this work, ultra-thin GO films with thicknesses of about 150 nm were prepared and then modified by a low energy carbon ion beam with ion fluences ranging from 1 × 1015 ions·cm-2 to 1 × 1017 ions·cm-2. An ion fluence of 1 × 1016 ions·cm-2 is a threshold for the changes to the surface geometry (i.e. the chemical state and the consequent morphology) of the GO films. Moreover, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) reveals that oxygen loss in ion beam-induced reduction of GO films was mainly by the elimination of the unstable C=O species. Raman spectroscopy indicates that a mass of defects with a mean defect distance of about 1.4 nm was generated in GO films by C+ irradiation. According to SRIM simulation, an average of 208 carbon vacancies were created in the GO film per impinging C+. These results suggest that low energy carbon ion beam irradiation is promising for simultaneously reducing and drilling nanoscale pores on GO surfaces in a controllable manner, which could be used for engineering GO-based separation membranes.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 144651 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-11 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Applied Surface Science |
Volume | 505 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2020 |
Keywords
- Graphene oxide
- Ultrathin film
- Ion beam
- Defect
- Raman
- SRIM