Sputtered transparent conducting graphene films on iron oxide coated glass

This work reports the optical, electrical and morphological properties of graphene (G) films. Firstly, glass substrates were coated with iron oxide (IO) films using a spraying method. Subsequently, the sputtering technique was employed for the formation of graphene films on the IO layers (G/IO films). According to XPS spectra, the IO films offered anchorage sites for the growth of G that improved the adherence to the substrate. Additionally, the sheet resistance of the films was in the range of 16–19.5 kΩ/□. Also, the optical measurements revealed that the G/IO films subjected to a post-deposition heat treatment presented a transmittance ~ 11% higher than those as-deposited. In fact, those heat-treated films presented a transparency above 80% for wavelengths above 850 nm and a high elasticity modulus of 0.188 ± 0.039 TPa, which make them good candidates to be used as transparent conductive electrodes in thin film transistors, surface plasmon biosensors or surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates.