The investigation of electrical and optical properties of graphen / carbon nanotube reinforced sol - gel zno composite material

In this study, composite materials based on zinc oxide, reinforced with graphene and carbon nanotubes were produced and the electrical and optical properties of the produced composite materials were investigated. The graphene used as reinforcement material is produced by liquid phase exfoliation method and carbon nanotubes were synthesized using chemical vapour deposition method. Zinc oxide used as matrix material was commercially available for the first group of samples, the second group was produced by the sol-gel method. G and KNT were added at different ratios to commercially available zinc oxide and powders produced by sol-gel zinc oxide. G and CNT materials used as reinforcing materials were subjected on TEM. In addition, the composite materials produced were structurally analyzed by SEM. Subsequently, the changes in the electrical conductivity of these composites were measured under temperature influence. The optical properties of the samples were determined by taking UV-vis spectrometers. As a result of the electrical measurements of the produced composite materials due to the temperature; a decrease in the electrical conductivity value was observed with the addition of the reinforcement element in both sample groups but an increase in conductivity values at the highest reinforcement ratio was observed. In addition, the ZnO-containing composites produced by the sol-gel method were found to have higher electrical conductivities, especially at higher temperature values, than the ZnO-containing composites provided. In the optical measurements made, it was observed that the forbidden energy range values increased with G and KNT reinforcement, and the reflectance values decreased.