Continuous flow photolytic reduction of graphene oxide

Abstract

Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) is generated from GO dispersed in water under continuous flow in the absence of harsh reducing agents, in a vortex fluidic device, such that the processing is scalable with uniformity of the product. This involves simultaneously UV irradiating (λ = 254 nm, 20 W) the dynamic thin film in the rapidly rotating glass tube in the microfluidic platform. The rGO is comparable to that formed using waste generating chemical based processing, with a film of the material having a resistance of 2.2 × 10⁵ Ω and a remarkably high conductivity of 2 × 10⁴ S cm⁻¹.