Graphene improves ZnO:Sm nanocomposite dielectric conductivity by up to seven orders of magnitude

Researchers at Romania's National Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies (IMT-Bucharest), working with the "Petru Poni" Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry in Iasi, the Horia Hulubei National R&D Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering's Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics facility, the National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest, and Hellenic Mediterranean University in Greece, have shown that adding small amounts of graphene to samarium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Sm) nanocomposites raises dielectric conductivity by up to seven orders of magnitude, from around 10⁻⁹ S/cm for pure ZnO to 10⁻³–10⁻² S/cm at the highest graphene loadings tested.