The excellent performance of graphene has attracted the attention of space scientists, which can be a new space materials that offer high performance and functionality in space application.

This study aims to explore the irradiation effect of 500 keV electron with different dose on reduced graphene oxide film (rGOF).

The rGOF materials with the thickness of 50 μm for experiment were prepared by chemical process, and the electron irradiation experiments were carried out in the electron proton double beam accelerator at Lanzhou Institute of Physics. The electrical properties, surface morphology, structural defects, thermal stability and inter-lamellar spacing of rGOF were measured by using a four-point probe (RTS-9 KEITHLEY 2400), Raman spectrometer (Raman), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and X-ray diffractometer (XRD), respectively, before and after irradiation. Finally, the FLUKA software was employed to calculate the electron deposition of 500 keV electron irradiated at different depths of the rGOF material in which the radiation source model was a 2.4 cm×2.4 cm square source vertically incident on a circular film target with a radius of 1 cm.

Experimental results show that the electrical resistance of rGOF is increased and the surface morphology is improved after electron irradiation, hence the irradiated defects are created with the ratio of total carbon atoms to total oxygen atoms (C/O) decreased from 4.7 to 3.0. FLUKA simulation results demonstrate that the 500 keV energy electron can penetrate the entire rGOF with deposited energy per unit depth of ±35 eV.

It can be concluded that the change in resistance is caused by defects, structural disturbances, oxygen-containing functional groups and C/O atomic ratios whilst the thermal stability is improved and the graphene layer spacing is larger after electron irradiation.