Optics and Laser Technology 103 (2018) 155–162

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Optics and Laser Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/optlastec

Full length article

Experimental investigation of the effects of different liquid

environments on the graphene oxide produced by laser ablation method
Elham Ghavidel, Amir Hossein Sari ⇑, Davoud Dorranian
Laser Lab., Plasma Physics Research Center, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this work, the effects of liquid environments on the characteristics and optical properties of carbon
Received 5 September 2017 nanostructures – in particular, Graphene Oxide (GO) – prepared by pulsed laser ablation were studied
Received in revised form 9 December 2017 experimentally. The second harmonic beam of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser of 532 nm wavelength at 6
Accepted 9 January 2018
ns pulse width and 0.7 J/cm2 fluence was employed to irradiate the graphite target in liquid nitrogen,
deionized water, and 0.01 M CTAB solution under the same initial experimental conditions. Produced
nanostructures were characterized by Raman scattering spectrum, FE-SEM and TEM images,
Keywords:
Photoluminescence, and UV–Vis-NIR spectrum. TEM and FE-SEM images show sheet-like morphology
Graphene oxide
Pulsed laser ablation
with few square micrometer area graphenes in all samples. Raman and UV–Vis-NIR analyses show that
Different liquid environments graphene is oxidized due to the presence of oxygen molecules in ablation environment. Results demon-
Photoluminescence strate that the graphene nanosheets produced in deionized water are multilayer, contains the largest sp2
domain size, the least defects and the lowest possibility of aggregation.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction which predominantly decorate the edges of the graphene sheets.

Graphene is a single sheet of carbon atoms tightly packed into a
two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb lattice [1]. It can be stacked into
three-dimensional graphite, rolled into one-dimensional nan-
otubes, or wrapped into zero-dimensional fullerenes [2,3]. Gra-
phene has been receiving a growing attention from diverse
research fields due to its unique electrical, optical, and mechanical
properties [4]. A perfect single-layered graphene sheet, in which
every carbon atom is sp2 hybridized and p-conjugated with adja-
cent carbons, is a zero band gap semiconductor and not expected
to be photoactive or photoluminescent [5]. By contrast, some of
the reports show that chemically synthesized Graphene Oxide
(GO) exhibits a broad photoluminescence where the electronic
structure has been modified [6]. The oxidation of graphene causes
the formation of graphitic islands in GO which produces a distribu-
tion of the p-network and thus opens up a band gap in the elec-
tronic structure [7]. The band gap of GO can be tunable by
varying the oxidation level [8]. In GO, large fraction (0.5–0.6) of
carbon is sp3 hybridized and is covalently bonded with oxygen in
a form of epoxy and hydroxyl groups [9,10]. The remaining carbon
is sp2 hybridized and are bonded either with neighboring carbon
atoms or with oxygen in the form of carboxyl and carbonyl groups,
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sari@srbiau.ac.ir (A.H. Sari).
Therefore, GO is a two dimensional network of sp2 and sp3 bonded
atoms, in contrast to an ideal graphene sheet which consists of
100% sp2 hybridized carbon atoms. This unique atomic and elec-
tronic structure of GO, consisting of variable sp2/sp3 fractions,
opens up possibilities for new functionalities [6]. In the method
which was used in this article, there is lots of oxygen molecules
in the ablation environment, lead to oxidation carbon molecules
during the production of graphene.
Graphene can be synthesized by various methods such as chem-
ical vapor deposition, mechanical exfoliation and cleavage, and
annealing a single-crystal SiC under ultrahigh vacuum [11,12].
Other graphene preparation methods are based on unzipping of
nanotubes [13] and chemical or electro chemical reduction of exfo-
liated graphite oxide [14]. These methods, however, have many
disadvantages including high energy requirement, low yield, limi-
tation of instrument [11,12] and difficulty to control the size [15].
Furthermore the chemical by products in these methods may be
harmful for environment and graphene derived by these methods
could contain a significant amount of oxygen functional groups
and defects [11,12].
Pulsed laser ablation (PLA) of graphite target in liquid environ-
ment is another method for producing graphene [16]. The PLA
technique possesses the advantages of simplicity of the procedure
and inexpensive equipment for controlling the ablation atmo-
sphere [17]. Laser wavelength, pulse width, spot size, intensity,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optlastec.2018.01.034
0030-3992/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
156 E. Ghavidel et al. / Optics and Laser Technology 103 (2018) 155–162
temperature, as well as the ablation liquid environment are strong
tools to control the final production of laser ablation process
[15,18]. Changes in the liquid environment used in laser ablation
provide a simple and flexible technique to modify the properties
of nanostructures [19]. Laser energy may break the weak Van der
Waals bonds between the graphite sheets to produce graphene.
Beside graphene nanosheets we have different forms of carbonic
nanoparticles in the liquid environment.
There have been many efforts on investigating the effects of
laser parameter such as wavelength, pulse width, or fluence on
the properties of laser produced graphene. Recently, Mortazavi
et al. have presented a work on the fabrication of graphene with
a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser ablation of graphite target in liquid
nitrogen [16]. Sadeghi et al. [20] investigated the effects of liquid
environment on the optical properties of produced graphene. They
used the fundamental wavelength of Nd:YAG laser to produced
graphene. Tabatabaie et al. [15] studied the effect of laser fluence
on the characteristics of produced graphene in liquid nitrogen. In
this experimental research for the first time we have investigated
the effects of liquid environments on the characteristics of carbon
nanostructures produced by 532 nm wavelength laser pulse. Liq-
uid nitrogen, deionized water, and 0.01 M CTAB were used as the
ablation liquid environments. Aim of this work is to investigate
the potential of different liquid environments to produce graphene
nanosheets and demonstrate the effect of surrounding molecules
on them. Liquid nitrogen is a nonpolar liquid, water is polar liquid,
and CTAB is a cationic surfactant. Moreover, the density of liquid
environments was reduced in 0.01 M CTAB, water, and liquid nitro-
gen, respectively. Details about the densities are presented in
Table 1. Different natures of these liquids as well as their different
density are effective topics to influence the formation of different
sized nanostructures. Rate of nanostructures production by laser
ablation method is strongly under the influence of ablation liquid
environment. Density of the liquid may change the pressure of
plasma plume which forms on the surface of target during the
ablation process and the shock waves which propagate in the tar-
get, lead to change the amount of nanostructures which ablate
from the surface of target.
2. Experimental setup
Carbon nanoparticles and graphene oxide were produced by
pulsed laser ablation of a graphite plate (99.9%) in various liquid
environments. A graphite plate was placed on the bottom of an
open glass cylindrical vessel filled with 80 mL of liquid and height
of the liquid on the surface of the target was 5 mm. All equipment
include the graphite plate was cleaned ultrasonically in ethanol,
acetone and deionized water before the experiments. Graphite tar-
get was ablated with the second harmonic pulse of Nd:YAG laser,
operated at 7 ns pulse width and 5 Hz repetition rate and 532
nm wavelength. 5000 laser pulses were used to produce carbon
nanostructures in various liquid environments. The fluence of laser
Table 1
Liquid environment, density, wavelength of absorption peak, and bandgap energy of samples produced by PLA.
Sample 1 2
Liquid environment Liquid nitrogen
Molecule structure NN
Density (g/ml) 0.8064
Wavelength of absorption peak (nm) 304
Direct bandgap energy (eV) 3.9
pulse was 0.7 J/cm2 with 6 mm diameter. Output of laser was
focused on the surface of graphite target using a 100 mm focal
length convex lens. Using w02ffikf/pw01, the spot size of laser pulse
on the surface of target was calculated to be about 30 lm. In this
equation w01 and w02 are the initial size of the beam and spot size
respectively. k is the laser wavelength and f is the focal distance of
the lens. During laser ablation, the target was rotated manually to
ensure uniform ablation and to avoid a texturing effect.
We have produced carbon nanostructures and graphene oxide
in liquid nitrogen, deionized water, and cetyltrimethylammonium
bromide (CTAB) 0.01 M. Detail about the samples preparation is
presented in Table 1. For preparation of carbon nanostructure in
liquid nitrogen, the cylindrical vessel was full of liquid nitrogen
as the media for pulsed laser ablation. Height of liquid nitrogen
on the target was 0.5 cm. The injection of liquid nitrogen into
cylindrical vessel successively continues during the time that a
thermal steady state condition is obtained. After laser exposure,
the residual liquid nitrogen has evaporated at the room tempera-
ture and immediately deionized water was added to the cylindrical
vessel establishing a suspension for the carbon nanostructure.
A variety of analytical techniques were applied for the charac-
terization of products. The optical properties of the samples were
examined at room temperature by UV–Vis-NIR spectrophotometer
from PG instruments Ltd. To record the spectra, samples were in a
10 mm path length quartz cells with reference to correspond solu-
tion. Transmission electron microscope (TEM), from Zeiss EM10C
was conducted by placing a drop of the concentrated suspension
on a carbon coated copper grid. Their morphology was investigated
by Hitachi S4160 field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-
SEM). Raman Thermo Nicolet disperse spectroscope from Almega
was utilized to determine the structure, quality and amount of
GO in dried drops of suspensions on glass substrate with 0.1
cm1 spectral resolution. Room-temperature photoluminescence
Fig. 1. Carbon nanostructures produced by pulsed laser ablation in liquid nitrogen,
deionized water and 0.01 M CTAB.
3
Deionized water CTAB 0.01 M
1.0028 1.0073
306.5 308.5
3.4 3.1
 E. Ghavidel et al. / Optics and Laser Technology 103 (2018) 155–162
(PL) of the samples was measured to characterize the lumines-
cence properties of the GO, using a luminescence spectrometer
Ls-5 device from Perkin Elmer co., USA.
3. Results and discussion
Pictures of nanostructures solutions are presented in Fig. 1.
Depending on nanoparticle size, and concentration in suspensions,
and structures of carbon, the color of nanostructure solution in liq-
uid environments can be varied. Carbon nanostructure suspensions
are expected to be gray or even dark gray. In the laser ablation of
graphite, usually several forms of carbon nanostructures such as
carbon nanoparticles, graphite, graphene, and fluorine may be pro-
duced in the suspensions. Among carbon nanostructures, graphene
(oxide) nanosheet is transparent and colorless [15,20]. All suspen-
sions were almost colorless. The light color of suspensions was due
to large amount of graphene or graphene oxide in them [15]. We
did not observe any color change or precipitation in solutions even
after 3 months indicating their stability.
Raman spectroscopy has been a major experimental technique
to study the bonding nature of various carbon materials. In order
to study the nature of sp2 domains, Raman analyses of samples
in the range of 1000–1800 cm1 were shown in Fig. 2. The main
characteristics in the Raman spectra of graphitic carbon-based
materials are the G and D and D0 bands. The Raman bands in the
range of 1200–1450, 1500–1600 and 1600–1630 cm1 are known
as D, G and D0 bands respectively. The G band points out the optical
E2g phonons at the Brillouin zone center caused by the bond
stretching of sp2 carbon. The D band represents the breathing
Fig. 2. Raman scattering spectrum of samples in the range of 1000–1800 cm1. The shift in G peaks are due to the oxygenation of graphene in samples.
157
mode of aromatic rings arising due to the defect in the sample
[21]. D0 peak may be caused by the vibrations of randomly dis-
tributed impurities or surface charges in graphene. Actually D0
peak is a split of G peak because of the effect of interaction of local-
ize impurities vibrational mode with the extended phonon modes
of graphene. Eda et al. [6] have reported that the Raman spectra of
graphene show a strong G peak at 1570 cm1 due to the first order
scattering of E2g mode. In the sample 1, D band in liquid nitrogen
medium has dual peaks at 1320 cm1 and 1400 cm1 and the G
band peak was occurred at 1580 cm1. The shift in the G peak is
due to the oxygenation of produced graphene from graphite target
[22]. Furthermore, the peak at 1470 cm1 is due to the intrinsic
defects of amorphous carbon [23] and the peak at 1170 cm1 in
the Raman spectra of this sample is due to formation of nano-
diamonds [16]. In sample 2 and 3, D band peak was formed at
1365 cm1 and 1370 cm1, and G band peak was formed at 1610
cm1 and 1600 cm1, respectively. As mentioned above, the shift
in G peaks are due to the oxygenation of graphene in samples.
The ratio of the intensity of G band peak to D band peak shows
the quality of graphene oxide in the samples [21]. In this experi-
ment, the ration is almost unity for the cases of samples 2 and 3.
In order to determine the average domain size of the sp2 clusters
in graphene materials, we employed the Tuinstra and Koenig rela-
tion, which relates the ratio of D and G bands intensities into the
crystallite size as follows [21]:
IðDÞ =IðGÞ ¼ CðkÞ=La ð1Þ
where L is sp2 domain size, k is the laser wavelength which was
used for Raman spectroscopy, and ID/IG is the intensity ratio of the
158 E. Ghavidel et al. / Optics and Laser Technology 103 (2018) 155–162

D and G peaks. The average sizes of GO in sample 1 to 3 were found
as 0.25 lm, 0.515 lm, and 0.512 lm, respectively.
Fig. 3 displays the Raman shift of the dried GO suspension in the
range of 1000–3500 cm1. The 2D band is ascribe to double reso-
nance transitions resulting in the production of two phonons with
opposite momentum and this band can be correlated to the num-
ber of graphene layers [24–26]. The 2D band is occurred in the
range of 2400–2700 cm1 in the spectra, due to production of gra-
phene in samples [27]. Because of the added forces from the inter-
actions between layers of AB-stacked graphene, as the number of
graphene layers increases, the spectrum will become different
from that of single-layer graphene, namely a splitting of the 2D
peak into an increasing number of modes that can combine to give
a wider, shorter, higher frequency peak [16]. In the case of our
samples the 2D band was occurred around 2900 cm1 in the spec-
tra for sample 1 and 3. This peak is shifted towards higher frequen-
cies due to the formation GO in this sample [28]. The 2D Raman
shift did not occur for the graphene sheets which were produced
in water (sample 2). This is mainly because in the multi-layer gra-
phene, the shape of 2D band is pretty much different from that in
the single-layer graphene. As the final conclusion, the number of
GO layers in water is larger than other samples.
Fig. 4 shows the Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image
of the graphene oxide showing sheet-like morphology which is
transparent and wrinkled at the edges. As can be seen, few-layer
GO were form in liquid nitrogen, water, and CTAB. Transparency
of sheets in TEM images is what we exactly expect from GO. Gra-
phene oxide sheets in liquid nitrogen are more transparent than

Fig. 3. Raman scattering spectrum of samples in the range of 1000–3500 cm1. The 2D Raman shift did not occur for the sample 2, confirming the presence of multi-layer
graphene.

Fig. 4. TEM micrographs show sheet-like morphology with few square micrometer area graphenes in all samples.
 E. Ghavidel et al. / Optics and Laser Technology 103 (2018) 155–162 159

produced sheets in water and CTAB. It demonstrates that the num-
ber of layers in liquid nitrogen is considerably less than other sam-
ples. The contrary, the highest number of layers is produced in
CTAB medium, as some parts of copper substrate are completely
opaque.
Fig. 5 illustrates the FE-SEM image of the samples that confirms
the result of TEM micrographs. These figures show that the largest
area graphene sheets were formed in CTAB which is in good agree-
ment with other results. Presenting the accumulation of graphene
nanosheets on each other in SEM images, make it difficult to mea-
sure the size of sheets, but in TEM images, size of nanosheets can
be measured clearly which is in good agreement with the extracted
size from Raman analysis.
UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy is an efficient technique to
monitor the optical properties of quantum-size particles [29].
The UV–Vis-NIR absorption spectra of suspensions after ablation
are shown in Fig. 6. The absorption peak due to p–p⁄ transition
of C@C band and n–p⁄ transition of C@O band have been occurred
around 230 and 300 nm respectively [30,31]. This absorption fea-
tures are seen due to excitonic resonance in the free electron cloud
of carbonaceous material p electrons [32]. The appearance of
absorption peak at 300 nm in oxidized graphite is a characteristic
feature of GO. In the published work by Krishnamoorthy et al.
[33], the exitonic absorption peak of graphene oxide produced
via Hummer’s method occurred at 226 nm. The reason may be
explained by the fact that the wavelength correspond to exitonic
absorption peak of nanostructures strongly depends to their size.
In the case of our produced graphene, larger size of samples has
made a red shift in the wavelength of absorption peak. The wave-
lengths correspond to absorption peaks of samples are presented
in Table 1. As all the samples are produced under the same condi-
tions, the difference in the intensity and shape of the absorption
peak indicate the effect of the liquid environment in producing
the nanostructures. We cannot expect a sharp excitonic absorption
peak from GO sheets with hundreds nanometer size. Sharp absorp-
tion peaks in the spectrum of suspensions are due to carbon
nanoparticles which formed beside GO sheets in suspensions dur-
ing the laser ablation process [34,35]. Intensity of peaks increased
from sample 1 to 3 and it show that we have smaller carbon
nanoparticles in sample 1 and they become larger from sample 1
to 3, respectively. The wavelengths corresponding to peaks are
very close for all samples, but the wavelengths are slightly shifted
towards NIR from sample 1 to 3. The shift towards longer wave-
length (red shift) of the prepared nanoparticle is due to increasing
particle size [20,35,36]. It confirms that produced carbon nanopar-
ticles in sample 3 are averagely larger than produced carbon
nanoparticles in the other samples. It is known that in liquids,
the nanoparticles are surface charged [37]. Since preparations were
carried out under the same initial experimental conditions, surface
charge intensively affected the carrier medium. Due to the interac-
tion of liquid environment molecules and charged nanoparticles,
electrical double layers surround the surface of the nanoparticles

Fig. 5. FE-SEM micrographs of samples. The largest area graphene sheets were formed in CTAB.

Fig. 6. UV–Vis-NIR absorption spectra of samples. The appearance of absorption peak at 300 nm is a characteristic feature of GO.
160 E. Ghavidel et al. / Optics and Laser Technology 103 (2018) 155–162
[38]. Polar molecules provide a strong surrounding electrical dou-
ble layer, which prevents growth, aggregation and precipitation
[19]. Water is a polar liquid and liquid nitrogen is a nonpolar liq-
uid. Therefore, smaller nanoparticles are generated in polar liquids
compared to nonpolar liquids [39]. CTAB is a cationic surfactant.
Surfactants play a key role in nanoparticles synthesis by adsorbing
to the surface of the forming nanoparticle and lowering its surface
energy [40].
Surfactants also help to prevent aggregation. This is supported
by our TEM and FE-SEM images [Figs. 4 and 5]. As can be clearly
seen, no aggregation took place in sample 3. From another site of
view, results of UV–Vis-NIR spectroscopy also show that the mass
production rate of carbonic nanoparticles decreases from CTAB to
water and from water to liquid nitrogen. This is due to density of
ablation liquid environment which decreases from CTAB to water
and from water to liquid nitrogen. In the larger density of ablation
environment i.e. larger pressure of plasma plume, which forms on
the surface of target during the ablation process, rate of nanoparti-
cle production will be increased. Results confirm that the proper-
ties of liquid environment (polar, nonpolar, or cationic) are not
efficient in the mass rate of nanoparticle production.
The optical absorption coefficients of samples are evaluated
from transmittance data using [41]:
 
1 1
a ¼ Ln ð2Þ
d T
where a is the absorption coefficient, T is the transmittance, and d is
the thickness of samples, which was taken to be 1 cm, equal to the
thickness of quartz cuvette of spectrometer. The absorption coeffi-
cients of samples are presented in Fig. 7. As can be seen, it increased
slightly by increasing the photon energy and decreased to 0 when
the energies of photons are larger than 4.1 eV. Results clearly show
that the absorption edge is formed in the spectra of absorption coef-
ficient of samples. Absorption edge is the typical characteristics of
semiconductor and insulators. It confirms that a large amount of
graphene was oxidized during the production process and the opti-
cal behavior of samples confirms that we have GO in the suspen-
sions rather than graphene. Comparing this result with other data
shows that the amount of nanosheets and their quality are not
the most effective parameters in formation the optical properties
of samples. In this case the most effective parameter is the amount
of other nanostructures in the suspensions.
By using Tauc’s equation, the optical band gap energy of sam-
ples can be obtained experimentally from the absorption coeffi-
cient [42]. The Tauc’s equation can be written as:
Fig. 7. Absorption coefficient evaluated from transmittance data of samples.
ðahmÞ ¼ Bðhm  Eg Þ
m
ð3Þ
where B is a constant magnitude, hm is the photon energy, Eg is the
optical band gap energy and a is the absorption coefficient. Depend-
ing in direct or indirect allowed transition m is 2 or 1/2, respec-
tively. We took m = 2, which corresponds to the directly allowed
transition. In a direct gap, a photon can be emitted because the elec-
tron must pass through an intermediate state without transferring
momentum to the crystal lattice.
According to Tauc method the absorption edge in (ahm)1/m  hm
plot is a line which intersects the hm axis at Eg [43]. The optical
band gap energy of samples is extracted from Fig. 8 and presented
in Table 1. The energy gap of samples is decreased from 3.9 to 3.1
for sample 1 to 3. This reduction confirms that with increasing the
amount of oxygenation of graphene, the band gap energy
increases. As mentioned above, the oxidation of graphene causes
the formation of graphitic islands in GOes which produces a dis-
ruption of the p-network and thus opens up a band gap in the elec-
tronic structure [7].
The photoluminescence spectra of GO prepared by laser abla-
tion in different liquid media are shown in Fig. 9. The Photolumi-
nescence (PL) spectra consist of two main peaks under excitation
at 260 nm at room temperature. The UV emission in GO is due to
the oxidation of graphene which produce various sizes of crys-
talline graphitic sp2 clusters surrounded by amorphous sp3 matrix
in GO which act as a high tunnel barrier resulting in the creation of
band gap in GO [33]. The exitonic state can be involved in the emis-
sion process by recombination of the excited electron in the con-
duction band with the remained hole in valance band. This
process leads to emission of photons in the violet-blue region. As
shown in Fig. 9, the PL spectra of GO nanosheets show an emission
peak in the near ultraviolet UV region at 375 nm, which can be
attributed to exitonic emission, with 75 nm Stokes shift [44]. As
explained previously, the exitonic absorption peaks in UV–Vis-
NIR have occurred in 300 nm in all samples. On the other hand,
due to the small size of prepared GO nanosheets, most atoms are
localized at the surface of samples. These surface atoms can repre-
sent some localizing defect sites, owing to unsaturated dangling
bonds which behave as carrier trapping sites [45]. The presence
of defects in produced GO can provide trapping sites for carriers
and leads to quenching of the radiative exitonic recombination.
This possibility of recombination through trap sites might be a rea-
son for broadening of trap emission over a wide range of wave-
lengths, between 395 and 410 nm. The PL spectra of GO
nanosheets also exhibit an emission around 520 nm due to the
overlap of the second-order emissions associated to the excitation
 E. Ghavidel et al. / Optics and Laser Technology 103 (2018) 155–162
Fig. 8. Illustration of Tauce method to extract the band gap energy of samples.
Fig. 9. Photoluminescence spectra of samples showing a broad peak in the neighborhood of 400 nm which is reported for chemically derived GO.
wavelength [46]. As can be seen, these peaks show a red shift from
sample 1 to 3 and 3 to 2 respectively. The shift in the suspension PL
can be attributed to the difference in the dielectric environment
[6]. From the properties of liquid media perspective, the less elec-
trostatic repulsion force, the more possibility of aggregation and
quenching PL intensity. Both water and CTAB provide an electro-
static repulsion force in the samples. (See Table 1, molecules struc-
tures), which lead to intensive peaks compared with sample 1 (a
nonpolar liquid).
4. Conclusions
In this present work, the effect of the liquid carrier medium on
the optical properties of graphene oxide was studied. Results illus-
trate that GO was prepared in liquid nitrogen, deionized water and
0.01 M CTAB. Since samples were produced under the same initial
experimental conditions and liquid environment was variable, it
was found that the liquid environment was an effective parameter
on the quality of produced carbon nanostructure. The mechanism
of the GO formation is proposed based on the penetration of liquid
environment molecules into the interlayer spacing of graphite and
the subsequent expansion to gas phase during laser heating.
Results show that in our experimental conditions, despite of mul-
tilayer graphene oxide nanosheets, deionized water is a capable
161
carrier medium to produce GO sheets. This sample (sample 2) con-
tains the largest sp2 domain size, the least defects and the lowest
possibility of aggregation.
Acknowledgment
E. Ghavidel would like to thank Dr. Ehsan Soheyli for his valu-
able advice and guidance in PL data analysis.
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optlastec.2018.01.
034.
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