Scalable production of water-dispersible reduced graphene oxide and its integration in a field effect transistor

The development of environmentally benign, low-processing and low-cost approaches to the large-scale preparation of advanced nanomaterials based on the use of biological materials is currently attracting great interest. Here, we report the discovery that aqueous honey solutions reduce graphene oxide in a low-cost and an eco-friendly manner, yielding highly water dispersive functionalized reduced graphene sheets. The roles of honey in the reduction of graphene oxide of as-prepared graphene are demonstrated. The possible mechanism for the de-epoxidation of graphene oxide is elucidated. The fabricated a honey-reduced graphene oxide-based field-effect transistor exhibited ambipolar transfer characteristics, thereby demonstrating that the developed material may therefore have applications in electronic devices and sensors. (C) 2018 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.