Nanocomposites of size-controlled gold nanoparticles and graphene oxide: formation and applications in SERS and catalysis

• Published in: Nanoscale Vol. 2; no. 12; p. 2733
• Main Authors: Huang, Jie, Zhang, Liming, Chen, Biao, Ji, Nan, Chen, Fenghua, Zhang, Yi, Zhang, Zhijun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01-01-2010
• Subjects: Catalysis; Gold - chemistry; Graphite - chemistry; Kinetics; Metal Nanoparticles - chemistry; Metal Nanoparticles - ultrastructure; Pyrimidines - chemistry; Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; Spectrum Analysis, Raman
• ISSN: 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/c0nr00473a

In this paper, we describe the formation of Au nanoparticle-graphene oxide (Au-GO) and -reduced GO (Au-rGO) composites by noncovalent attachment of Au nanoparticles premodified with 2-mercaptopyridine to GO and rGO sheets, respectively, viaπ-π stacking and other molecular interactions. Compared with in situ reduction of HAuCl4 on the surface of graphene sheets that are widely used to prepare Au-GO composites, the approach developed by us offers well controlled size, size distribution, and morphology of the metal nanoparticles in the metal-GO nanohybrids. Moreover, we investigated surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and catalysis properties of the Au-graphene composites. We have demonstrated that the Au-GO composites are superior SERS substrates to the Au NPs. Similarly, a comparative study on the catalytic activities of the Au, Au-GO, and Au-rGO composites in the reduction of o-nitroaniline to 1,2-benzenediamine by NaBH4 indicates that both Au-GO and Au-rGO composites exhibit significantly higher catalytic activities than the corresponding Au nanoparticles.