Electrospinning bifunctional polyphenylene-vinylene/heated graphene oxide composite nanofibers with luminescent-electrical performance

Highlights: • Heat treatment of graphene oxide to reduce oxygen-containing functional groups; • Polyphenylene-vinylene/heated graphene oxide composite nanofibers were prepared; • The composite nanofibers prepared by electrospinning are uniform and continuous; • Composite nanofibers exhibit higher photocurrent intensity than individual fibers. Composite fibers show great application potential in the field of photoelectronics. The polyphenylene-vinylene/heated graphene oxide (PPV/H-GO) composite nanofibers were prepared using electrospinning method. To be specific, H-GO was prepared by thermally reducing graphene oxide (GO) that was synthesized by the Hummers method. By performing a series of tests, the morphology and the photoelectric properties of GO and its composite nanofibers were characterized in the present study. The morphology of PPV/H-GO nanofibers embedded with H-GO were uniform and continuous, and the number of oxygen-containing functional groups in H-GO was reduced by heating GO. PPV/H-GO composite nanofibers were red-shifted in the photoluminescence spectrum and exhibited higher photocurrent intensity under the light, as compared with PPV nanofibers. As revealed from this study, PPV/H-GO composite nanofiber materials show promising applications in photoelectronics.