A general route for growing metal sulfides onto graphene oxide and exfoliated graphite oxide

Abstract

Graphene-based materials are elective materials for a number of technologies due to their unique properties. Also, semiconductor nanocrystals have been extensively explored due to their size-dependent properties that make them useful for several applications. By coupling both types of materials, new applications are envisaged that explore the synergistic properties in such hybrid nanostructures. This research reports a general wet chemistry method to prepare graphene oxide (GO) sheets decorated with nanophases of semiconductor metal sulfides. This method allows the in situ growth of metal sulfides onto GO by using metal dialkyldithiocarbamate complexes as single-molecule precursors. In particular, the role of GO as heterogeneous substrate for the growth of semiconductor nanocrystals was investigated by using Raman spectroscopic and imaging methods. The method was further extended to other graphene-based materials, which are easily prepared in a larger scale, such as exfoliated graphite oxide (EGO).