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

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 26; no. 21; p. 6424
• Main Authors: Witjaksono, Gunawan, Junaid, Muhammad, Khir, Mohd Haris, Ullah, Zaka, Tansu, Nelson, Saheed, Mohamed Shuaib Bin Mohamed, Siddiqui, Muhammad Aadil, Ba-Hashwan, Saeed S., Algamili, Abdullah Saleh, Magsi, Saeed Ahmed, Aslam, Muhammad Zubair, Nawaz, Rab
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 25.10.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Boron; Carbon; Chemical vapor deposition; conductivity; Doping; Electrical conductivity; Electrical resistivity; Energy; Graphene; Hall effect; Morphology; Nanomaterials; Nitrogen; nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide; optical bandgap tunning; optoelectronic; Optoelectronic devices; Photonic band gaps; Raman spectroscopy; Transistors; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules26216424

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.