Creating Metal Nanoparticle-Reduced Graphene Oxide Sheets by a Simple Desktop Method
- PDF / 822,676 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 99 Downloads / 224 Views
Creating Metal Nanoparticle-Reduced Graphene Oxide Sheets by a Simple Desktop Method Rebecca Isseroff1,2, Arthur Chen2, Lee Blackburn2, Justin Lish5, Jessica Kim3, Andrew Chen4, Tae Jin Kim1, Molly Gentleman1, Miriam Rafailovich1 1
Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794, United States 2 Lawrence High School, Cedarhurst, NY, United States 3 Manhasset High School, Manhasset NY 11030, United States 4 Rice University, Houston, TX 77251, United States 5 Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaways, Cedarhurst, NY, United States ABSTRACT We have previously reported on a simple desktop method for producing high quality reduced graphene oxide sheets (RGO) which involved dispersing graphene oxide in an ethanol-water solvent and reducing it with sodium borohydride. Metal salts can also be potent reducing agents. Here we show that when these salts are incorporated into the reduction process, metalized graphene sheets can be formed. Metallic salts were used to form Au, Pt, and AuPt nanoplatelets incorporated into the graphene structure. The nature of these metalized graphene platelets was then examined using FTIR, TEM, and SEM/EDAX. Raman spectroscopy of metalized graphene samples show peak shifts and increased D/G ratios over pure graphene, indicating an increased number of defects in the material and suggesting an attachment of metal atoms to the graphene surface. By using a minimum of metal while maximizing the surface contact area of the graphene sheet, these nanoparticle-RGO composites have potential for use in energy-producing devices and/or as catalysts. INTRODUCTION The utilization of gold and platinum nanoparticles for the oxidation of chemicals such as carbon monoxide (CO) is an innovative method for catalysis in chemistry, chemical engineering, and materials science. The effectiveness of a catalyst is proportional to its surface area; thus, it is hypothesized that increasing the surface area of gold and platinum nanoparticles will increase the number of active sites of those nanoparticles, thereby increasing catalysis for such reactions as CO oxidation. However, challenges associated with nanoparticles include being able to produce them on a large scale with precisely controlled properties such as homogenous size, distribution and crystalline structure. Aggregation, a common yet complex phenomenon for small particles, is problematic [1]. While aggregation is known to decrease the surface-area to volume ratio, it also attracts nanoparticles closer to each other, resulting in their interaction and possibly altering the distinctive characteristics that make nanoparticles unique [2]. Also, the reduced surface area of an aggregate may influence its ability to react with different molecules as well. Although researchers have been able to stabilize nanoparticles from becoming aggregates with ligands, this causes a decrease in their catalytic performance [3].
Graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) may be able to address some of the issues that nanoparticles curr
Data Loading...
