Magnetite-graphene oxide nanocomposites: Facile synthesis and characterization of optical and magnetic property

Abstract

Graphene based magnetic nanocomposites provides promising applications for flexible transparent electronics due to increase in number of interfaces in nanocomposites which can provide better magnetic coupling. In this present work, magnetite-graphene oxide (MGO) and magnetite-reduced graphene oxide (MRGO) nanocomposites are synthesized with a homogeneous dispersion of Fe3O4 nanoparticles using a facile synthesis method i.e. co-precipitation and reduction processes at room temperature. UV–Visible and Fluorescence spectroscopy techniques are used to study the optical characteristics, while the structural, morphological and compositional characteristics are studied using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDAX) techniques respectively. The magnetic hysteresis curves of MGO and MRGO are measured by the Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) system. The full hysteresis loop is obtained from −5 kOe to 5 kOe. Both MGO and MRGO nanocomposites have shown superparamagnetism at room temperature. The saturation magnetization obtained for MGO and MRGO is 3.45 emu/g and 3.92 emu/g respectively. Such nanocomposites can be used in graphene based environmental technologies.