Wearable electronic devices are currently in great demand. 2D nanomaterials such as graphene, with their exceptional electrical and mechanical properties, play a key role in fabricating these devices. Graphene oxide (GO) is a scalable and low-cost alternative to pristine graphene. However, GO is an insulator and needs to be reduced to an electrically conducting form called reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO) to make it useful for sensors.

A group of IISc researchers in the Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics has now devised a novel method to instantaneously reduce graphene oxide using an electric spark.

This method is efficient and cost-effective, which would allow easy industrial scale-up. It is also more environment-friendly compared to existing methods as it does not generate chemical residues. Sensors developed using this method can have applications in gesture control, in biomedical rehabilitation to detect the degree and intensity of body movements, and in the field of robotics.