Photoluminescent Reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO)-ZnO Nanocomposites Prepared Through One-Pot Solvothermal Route

In the present article, we report solvothermal synthesis of reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-ZnO nanocomposites through in situ exfoliations of graphite oxide with two different zinc-containing precursors, namely zinc acetate dihydrate and zinc(II) acetylacetonate in water-diethylene glycol medium with hexamethylenetetramine as a reducing agent. The obtained rGO-ZnO nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, and the ZnO lattice parameters were calculated. Raman spectroscopy indicated the presence of characteristic bands of graphene and ZnO. Morphologies of the as-synthesized composites were studied using scanning electron microscopy. Elemental mapping of the composites by energy dispersive spectroscopy indicated dispersion of ZnO over the graphene layers. It was noted that the use of Zn(CH3COO)(2)center dot 2H(2)O precursor led to ZnO coated graphenic microspheres. When using Zn(acac)(2) as a precursor, the ZnO growth was observed to be across the graphenic layers. The photoluminescent properties of the composites were also investigated in detail and different emission peaks in the blue-green region were analyzed.