Selective band gap manipulation of graphene oxide by its reduction with mild reagents

Graphene oxide (GO) can be used as an electron acceptor for polymeric solar cells but still band gap matching for electron donor and acceptor demands more study. The generation of the exciton in such materials is intimately related to the optical band gap. However, exciton dissociation is related to transport band gap that controls the device performance, particularly the open circuit voltage and short circuit current. Therefore, the modulation of the optical gap is useful because it results into tuning of the transport gap. The interest of the present work is to study the reduction of graphene oxide (GO) at room temperature, using environmental friendly reagents like glucose, fructose and ascorbic acid for the modulation of a band gap. It has been found that glucose and fructose function effectively only in presence of NH4OH. Although ascorbic acid can reduce GO alone, NH4OH speeds up the reaction. The optical band gap of GO can be reduced and tuned effectively from 2.7 eV to 1.15 eV. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.