How the Reduced Graphene Oxide Prepared at Different pH Values Affect the Optical Transmittance and the Electrical Properties of Polystrene Latex Films?

Optical transmittance and electrical properties of polystyrene (PS)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) composites were studied. Photon transmission technique was used to monitor the optical transmittance and two-/four-probe methods were used for the electrical conductivity measurements. Two separate experimental sets were prepared. In the first set, the composite films were prepared at equal amounts of PS and rGO where the pH of the solution in which GO was reduced to rGO was changed from about 3 to 10. The second set includes the composite films which were prepared at different weight ratios of rGO which prepared at pH = 10. All of the composite films were annealed under the Infrared lamp and the annealing time was changed from 10 to 30 min to be able to understand the effect of the annealing time. It was observed that increasing annealing time starts the film formation at lower temperatures. Only the void closure stage of the film formation process could be observed for all composite films and increasing amount of rGO decreased the required energy for the void closure stage. (C) 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers