Fabrication of graphene electrodes by electrophoretic deposition and their synergistic effects with PEDOT and platinum

This research presents a useful electrophoretic deposition (EPD) technique for electrode fabrication from an aqueous colloidal solution of graphene to produce graphene electrodes by the deposition of graphene on to indium-tin oxide (ITO) coated glass. Resultant graphene electrodes are composited with conducting polymer (PEDOT), and platinum nanoparticles, to investigate their synergistic effects. Firstly, PEDOT is composited with graphene by electropolymerization on to the graphene layer. The graphene/PEDOT electrodes demonstrate an improvement in electrochemical response in tetrabutylammonium perchlorate/ acetonitrile solution. Secondly, graphene electrodes are composited with platinum by EPD of platinum nanoparticles on to the graphene layer. The resultant graphene/platinum electrodes show evidence of an encouragement of the deposition of platinum particles on to the graphene layer, and also show an electro-catalytic activity in the I-/I3 - redox system with an increase in electrochemical response with increasing platinum loading. These graphene composite electrodes show potential for applications in electrochromics (graphene/PEDOT electrodes), and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) (graphene/Pt electrodes).