Controlled doping rates of graphene oxide in aluminum for high electrical performance and oxygen reduction reaction

[Display omitted] •Through a sol–gel process that converts precursor solutions into solid gel-type materials, uniformly dispersed aluminum oxide can be produced using graphene oxide.•Functional groups present in graphene oxide provide additional chemical transformation and functionalization opportunities, allowing specific properties and functions to be integrated for specific applications.•The combination of graphene oxide and aluminum oxide as composites has potential synergies derived from unique properties, making them high-performance materials for energy harvesting, photocatalyst, and sensing applications. The brush coating method allows the advantage of being able to produce thin films simply and quickly. This study introduces a method for thin-film production by brushing a solution containing graphene doped in Al2O3 using the sol–gel method. Graphene oxide (GO) is suitable for semiconductors with bandgap values of about 1.7 eV at room temperature, and the characteristics of the thin films were analyzed according to the doping ratio. First, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements were obtained to analyze the chemical composition of the thin-film surface. Since graphene is a carbon isomer, the characteristic of oxygen vacancies was confirmed by the increasing C–C bond intensity with increasing GO doping concentration. In addition, Raman analysis was performed to analyze the concentration of molecular groups of compounds for defects in graphene. Thereafter, through atomic force microscopy measurements, as the graphene doping ratio increased, the average roughness increased from 1.785 to 33.67, the residual DC voltage also increased by about 48.42 %, and the polar anchoring energy also increased by about 16.33 %. In addition, response-time–transmittance measurements were performed to measure the electro-optical properties of the thin film, and excellent Vth and stable response speed were obtained. Additionally, the validity of the results was supported through bandgap analysis. Finally, the degree of alignment of liquid–crystal molecules on the film surface was confirmed by polarized optical microscopy and pretilt angle measurements, and the suitability of the thin film for display devices was shown via transmittance measurements. As a result, GO:Al2O3 hybrid thin film is an excellent candidate for use as an alignment film for solar energy, secondary batteries, and next-generation liquid crystal displays.