Effect of graphene oxide on electrical conductivity, bandgap and sensing properties of Chitosan-Poly(vinyl) alcohol films

Abstract

In this study, chitosan-polyvinyl alcohol-graphene oxide matrix films were prepared to observe the effect of graphene oxide volume (5mL, 10mL, 15mL, 20mL and 25mL) in microstructure, electrical conductivity, band gap and sensing properties of the films. The chitosan-polyvinyl alcohol-graphene oxide film was deposited using various volume of graphene oxide in order to obtain the optimum electrical properties. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) method was to analyze the structure of the prepared chitosan and blended chitosan with the presence of graphene oxide. The fourier transform infrared spectroscope (FTIR) was used to analyze the functional groups existence in the chitosan-polyvinyl alcohol graphene oxide films. After that, atomic force microscope (AFM) is employed to study the film surface structure in term of its surface roughness while ultraviolet visible spectroscope (UV-Vis) was applied to identify the band gap energy of chitosan and chitosan blended films. Four point probe testing was used to determine the electrical conductivity on the film sensors. From the overall results obtained, this research successfully proved that the addition of graphene oxide (20 mL) into chitosan-polyvinyl alcohol film has improved its electrical properties of the film.