Towards Understanding the Raman Spectrum of Graphene Oxide: The Effect of the Chemical Composition

Raman spectroscopy is a technique widely used to detect defects in semiconductors because it provides information of structural or chemical defects produced in its structure. In the case of graphene monolayer, the Raman spectrum presents two bands centered at 1582 cm−1 (G band) and 2700 cm−1 (2D band). However, when the periodic lattice of graphene is broken by different types of defects, new bands appear. This is the situation for the Raman spectrum of graphene oxide. It is well established that the existence of these bands, the position and the intensity or width of peaks can provide information about the origin of defects. However, in the case of the graphene oxide spectrum, we can find in the literature several discrepant results, probably due to differences in chemical composition and the type of defects of the graphene oxide used in these studies. Besides, theoretical calculations proved that the shape of bands, intensity and width, and the position of graphene oxide Raman spectrum depend on the atomic configuration. In the current work, we will summarize our current understanding of the effect of the chemical composition on the Raman spectrum of graphene oxide. Finally, we apply all this information to analyze the evolution of the structure of graphene oxide during the thermal annealing of the heterostructures formed by graphene oxide sandwiches in a hexagonal boron nitride.