Conductive graphene-based macroscopic membrane self-assembled at a liquid–air interface

Abstract

Free-standing graphene-based macroscopic membranes, which are characterized by a layered structure and tunable conductivity, are prepared by a self-assembly process at a liquid–air interface. Since the preliminary results indicate that it is hard to construct macroscopic graphene membranes solely by low-temperature exfoliated graphene nanosheets (LGNs) at the liquid–air interface, graphene oxide nanosheets (GONs), as the stacking template and sticking component, are introduced into the assembly process of graphene layers to promote the formation of layer-by-layer stacking structure and help form a conductive macroscopic membrane. The conductivity of such a graphene-based membrane can be tuned by changing the GON fraction in the LGN/GON hybrid membrane.