Title: In situ synthesis of graphene/zinc oxide composite by thermal decomposition of zinc acetate

Authors: Ruijin Hong; Liangliang Ding; Chunxian Tao; Dawei Zhang

Addresses: Engineering Research Center of Optical Instrument and System, Ministry of Education and Shanghai Key Lab of Modern Optical System, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516, Jungong Road, Shanghai 200093, China ' Engineering Research Center of Optical Instrument and System, Ministry of Education and Shanghai Key Lab of Modern Optical System, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516, Jungong Road, Shanghai 200093, China ' Engineering Research Center of Optical Instrument and System, Ministry of Education and Shanghai Key Lab of Modern Optical System, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516, Jungong Road, Shanghai 200093, China ' Engineering Research Center of Optical Instrument and System, Ministry of Education and Shanghai Key Lab of Modern Optical System, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516, Jungong Road, Shanghai 200093, China

Abstract: Graphene/ZnO composite was synthesised by in situ thermal decomposition of zinc acetate. The structural micrographs, vibrational properties and the decomposition mechanism of the samples were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman scattering spectra and thermogravimetric analyses (TGA). XRD spectra showed that the phase of as-calcined powders matched well with hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure of ZnO. In addition to the ZnO peaks, two strong peaks at 1573 cm⁻¹ and 1344 cm⁻¹ were observed in the Raman spectrum of as-calcined sample, reflecting the G band and D band of graphene oxides, which confirm the presence of graphene/ZnO composite. The in situ synthesis strategy and algorithm presented here are not limited to graphene/ZnO composite, but also can be extended to applications of graphene and other semiconductor oxide composites. According to the SEM images, the composite was aggregated with rod-like nanoparticles (the size in the range of 40-120 nm). The TAG results were in good agreement with the theoretical calculation.

Keywords: zinc acetate; in situ synthesis; graphene; zinc oxide; ZnO; composites; nanoparticles; nanotechnology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2015.071792

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2015 Vol.12 No.10/11/12, pp.811 - 817

Published online: 18 Sep 2015 *

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