Photo Induced Fluorescence Enhancement and Correlated FTIR of Single Layer Graphene Oxide

Ultrafast recombinations of photo-excited electron-hole pairs and low absorption in graphene have prevented its use for several low light applications. However, graphene oxide (GO) is a wide band gap material with emission in the visible spectrum. For optoelectronic applications, it is desired to have a material with good optical absorption and electrical transport. We report the in-situ photo induced observation of functional groups in progressively reduced GO due to the presence of intercalated water. We perform correlated fluorescence and FTIR spectroscopy on an individual GO flake and we assign the formation of a specific functional group(s) to the observed increase in the fluorescence intensity. This provides insights into tuning the band structure of graphene via controlled oxidation for relevant applications.