Growth of hydrophilic graphene oxide layers using continuous laser ablation

Abstract Graphene oxide has attracted considerable interest due to its several different structural and electronic properties. In the present work, the feasibility of producing cost-efficient few layers graphene oxide (FLGO) by continuous-wave laser-assisted (CLA) process via heating of a graphite target is achieved. The growth of FLGO layers is tuned by varying the illumination power of the laser. In particular, it is shown that the CLA approach could be efficiently utilized to produce graphene oxide features. Micro Raman spectroscopy is used as a potent technique to confirm the formation of the FLGO layers. The D-band refers to structural disorders or defects present in the FLGO. In order to dwell into the wetting properties of these intriguing layers, water contact angle (WCA) measurements are carried out on pristine graphite and FLGO samples. It is found that the WCA properties of FLGO and graphite are in contrast with each other. The pristine graphite and water show an angle of 89°, while, FLGO, shows super-hydrophilic features. This may be attributed to the structural modification of graphite due to laser irradiation as the oxygen atoms changing their electronegativity renders GO super-hydrophilic in nature.