Search

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a new simple technique to synthesize graphene film on a flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate and applied as a strain sensor. Design/methodology/approach – Graphene film was synthesized using laser treatment of graphene oxide (GO) film deposited on PET substrate. A universal laser system was used to simultaneously reduce and pattern the GO film into laser reduced graphene oxide (LRGO) film. Findings – The laser treatment synthesizes a multilayer graphene film with overlapped flakes, which shows structure integrity, mechanical flexibility and electrical conductivity of 1,330 S/m. The developed LRGO/PET film was used to fabricate a high sensitivity strain sensor. The sensitivity and temperature dependency of its gauge factor (GF) was examined at applied strains up to 0.25 per cent and operating temperatures up to 80°C. The fabricated sensor shows stable GF of approximately 78 up to 60°C with standard error of the mean not exceeding approximately ± 0.2. Originality/value – The proposed method offers a new simple and productive technique of fabricating large-scale graphene-based flexible devices at a low cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • In-situ fast processing technique for heteroatom doping of flexible GO films. • Pristine, N, and SN doped laser reduced graphene oxide for planar supercapacitors. • SN-LrGO interdigitated planar SC exhibits an areal capacitance of 13.8 mFcm−2. • Fabricated SCs show long lifespan with more than 90% retention after 2000 cycles. • Series and parallel combinations of SN-LrGO PSCs are investigated. A novel, scalable, single-step and low-synthesis temperature fabrication approach is proposed for real-time doping, reduction, and patterning of graphene oxide-based films supported on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate using a CO2 Laser system. Laser reduced graphene oxide (LrGO), nitrogen-doped laser reduced graphene oxide (N-LrGO), and sulfur-nitrogen co-doped laser reduced graphene oxide (SN-LrGO) planar supercapacitors (PSCs) are readily fabricated with the proposed approach. Structural and elemental characterizations prove the successful integration of nitrogen and sulfur atoms into the graphene framework with high contents up to 3.71 at% N and 1.82 at% S, and at a low density of structural defects. An areal capacitance as high as 13.8 mF cm−2 at 10 mV s−1 and a maximum power density of 151.7 mW cm−3 at an energy density of 0.152 mWh cm−3 is achieved by SN-LrGO PSC composed of 10 interdigitated fingers with an excellent retention rate after 2000 charging/discharging cycles at 0.125 mA cm−2. Furthermore, higher operating voltage window and current ratings are easily achieved via series and parallel combinations of SN-LrGO PSCs directly on the same substrate. This manifests the versatility of the proposed approach for producing flexible and high-performance graphene-based electrochemical storage devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]