Electron hopping in graphene oxide leads to highly sensitive sensing
Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 05:30
in Physics & Chemistry
(Phys.org) -- Graphene has many promising applications on its own, but pairing the two-dimensional material with the semiconductor titanium dioxide (TiO2) extends its capabilities even further. A team of chemists at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, has demonstrated that graphene oxide (GO)-TiO2 films, when illuminated, cause electrons to hop from one side of the film to the other. When adding silver ions to the picture, this electron hopping can create films that have a semiconductor on one side of the GO and metal on the other. The resulting semiconductor-graphene-metal (SGM) films could serve as highly sensitive chemical sensors.