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Benzyl Alcohol Assisted Synthesis and Characterization of Highly Reduced Graphene Oxide (HRG)@ZrO 2 Nanocomposites
Author(s) -
Shaik Mohammed R.,
AlMarri Abdulhadi H.,
Adil Syed F.,
Mohri Nils,
Barton Bastian,
Siddiqui Mohammed R. H.,
AlWarthan Abdulrahman,
Labis Joselito P.,
Tremel Wolfgang,
Khan Mujeeb,
Tahir Muhammad N.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
chemistryselect
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 34
ISSN - 2365-6549
DOI - 10.1002/slct.201601962
Subject(s) - benzyl alcohol , materials science , graphene , oxide , thermogravimetric analysis , nanocomposite , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , raman spectroscopy , nucleation , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , solvothermal synthesis , inorganic chemistry , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , chemistry , nanotechnology , catalysis , engineering , metallurgy , physics , optics
We demonstrate a one‐step solvothermal synthesis of HRG@ZrO 2 nanocomposites using benzyl alcohol as solvent and stabilizing ligand. The as‐synthesized HRG@ZrO 2 hybrid nanocomposites showed a homogeneous distribution of the ZrO 2 NPs (≈ 5 nm) onto HRG nanosheets. High resolution (HR)TEM, X‐ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the presence of cubic ZrO 2 . The presence of benzyl alcohol as stabilizing ligand was demonstrated by ultraviolet‐visible (UV‐vis), Fourier‐transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The reduction of graphene oxide to HRG was also realized by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). A study of the HRG@ZrO 2 formation mechanism revealed that benzyl alcohol adsorbs on HRG through π‐π interactions between the planar benzene ring of benzyl alcohol and the HRG nanosheets. The hydroxyl groups act as anchor groups to facilitate the nucleation of ZrO 2 NPs. The effect of the metal oxide precursor concentration on the coating density of ZrO 2 NPs was studied by preparing HRG@ZrO 2 nanocomposites with different concentrations of zirconium precursor.