Effects of air exposure on the interfacial capacitance of laser-induced graphene (LIG) with and without Silver (Ag) nanoparticle loading

Abstract

Research on laser-induced graphene (LIG) and LIG with silver nanoparticles loading (Ag-LIG) are increasing by the day as more of its potential are uncovered each day. With the LIG fabrication looking to increase further in the future, it will be useful to confirm and verify any changes in the quality of LIG when it is exposed to the ambient air. In normal laboratory conditions, researchers store samples in petri dishes or any other covered storage, but inevitably the air within the storage will still be in contact with the samples. In this study, we left LIG and Ag-LIG samples in a lidded petri dish after its fabrication and measured the interfacial capacitance of each sample using a standard three-electrode electrochemical setup with a potential range from 0 V to 0.4 V on different days. Results show that the interfacial capacitance of both LIG and Ag-LIG drops as it is left in the storage container longer after its fabrication, with Ag-LIG showing a greater decrease after 10 days compared to LIG. This indicates that the silver nanoparticles played an important part during the oxidation process, making Ag-LIG more sensitive to its environment during prolonged unuse. The findings from this study shows the potential usage of LIG and Ag-LIG as a low-cost single-use indicator for air exposure.