Photoluminescence study of graphene quantum dots (GOD's) embedded into SiO2 matrix

• Main Author: M Tanda Erapanni Sukumar
• Other Authors: Kantisara Pita
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/75297
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Graphene Quantum Dots (GQDs) are nanoscale particles, which are rich in carbon, and shows excellent electrical and optical conductivity. They are reduced from graphene, which is a single layer of repeatedly bonded Carbon atoms. GQDs have been at centre of attention for researchers for the past couple of years. However, most of the optical researches are done while GQDs are in liquid phase, which makes it impossible to be part of alternative lighting source in solid phase. As such, this project aims to fabricate GQDs as nanocrystals on silicon wafer. They are embedded in SiO2, which acts as a protective layer. Pyrolysis method was undertaken to reduce Citric Acid (CA) into GQDs. Spin-Coating technique was employed to deposit GQDs embedded in SiO2 film onto silicon wafer. Fabricated sample is than processed under heat to solidify deposited film. This process, is also known as annealing which employs Rapid Thermal Processor (RTP). Annealed samples are than put to photoluminescence test to study its light emission capabilities. Various parameters, such as GQDs concentration, annealing temperature, and Sol-Gel preparation time, were varied to find out the effect which those parameters had, on the photoluminescence of sample. This report also discusses on implications of obtained results. Logical analysis, backed by theoretical fundamentals were used to study the photoluminescence results. Few interesting phenomenon such as extra emission peaks were obtained, which were not reported in other experiments.