Fabrication of reduced graphene oxide/metal (Cu, Ni, Co) nanoparticle hybrid composites via a facile thermal reduction method

Abstract

A facile thermal reduction method has been proposed for the fabrication of reduced graphene oxide/metal (e.g., Cu, Co, Ni) nanoparticle hybrid composites at 500 °C for 90 minutes under flowing argon due to the release of reductive gas by thermolysis of graphene oxide. The loading amount and dispersion of metal nanoparticles could be easily controlled via the mass ratio of graphene oxide/metal nitrate precursor and the calcination temperature. The results show that with the increase of graphene oxide/metal nitrate mass ratio, it is easier to obtain pure metallic nanoparticles with high dispersion and small nanoparticle size.