Effect of Nitrogen Doping on the Optical Bandgap and Electrical Conductivity of Nitrogen-Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide

Gunawan Witjaksono; Muhammad Junaid; Mohd Haris Khir; Zaka Ullah; Nelson Tansu; Mohamed Shuaib Bin Mohamed Saheed; Muhammad Aadil Siddiqui; Saeed S Ba-Hashwan; Abdullah Saleh Algamili; Saeed Ahmed Magsi; Muhammad Zubair Aslam; Rab Nawaz

doi:10.3390/molecules26216424

Effect of Nitrogen Doping on the Optical Bandgap and Electrical Conductivity of Nitrogen-Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide

Molecules. 2021 Oct 25;26(21):6424. doi: 10.3390/molecules26216424.

Affiliations

¹ BRI Institute, Jl. Harsono RM No. 2, Ragunan, Jakarta 12550, Passsar Minggu, Indonesia.
² Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Perak, Malaysia.
³ Department of Electronic Engineering, Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences, Quetta 87300, Balochistan, Pakistan.
⁴ School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
⁵ Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
⁶ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Perak, Malaysia.
⁷ Department of Fundamental Science, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Perak, Malaysia.

Abstract

Graphene as a material for optoelectronic design applications has been significantly restricted owing to zero bandgap and non-compatible handling procedures compared with regular microelectronic ones. In this work, nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (N-rGO) with tunable optical bandgap and enhanced electrical conductivity was synthesized via a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method. The properties of the synthesized N-rGO were determined using XPS, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, UV/vis, as well as FESEM techniques. The UV/vis spectroscopic analysis confirmed the narrowness of the optical bandgap from 3.4 to 3.1, 2.5, and 2.2 eV in N-rGO samples, where N-rGO samples were synthesized with a nitrogen doping concentration of 2.80, 4.53, and 5.51 at.%. Besides, an enhanced n-type electrical conductivity in N-rGO was observed in Hall effect measurement. The observed tunable optoelectrical characteristics of N-rGO make it a suitable material for developing future optoelectronic devices at the nanoscale.

Keywords: conductivity; nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide; optical bandgap tunning; optoelectronic.

Grants and funding

015LC0-010/Yayasan UTP