Microwave assisted facile synthesis of reduced graphene oxide-silver (RGO-Ag) nanocomposite and their application as active SERS substrate

Abstract

The present paper represents the facile and rapid synthesis of reduced graphene oxide-silver (RGO-Ag) nanocomposite with the help of microwave irradiation. The graphene oxide (GO) solution has been prepared in bulk using Hummer's method followed by microwave assisted in-situ reduction of GO and silver nitrate (AgNO3) by hydrazine hydrate in a short spam of 5 min. The prepared nanocomposite has been characterized using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and UV–Visible spectroscopy. TEM analysis shows that Ag nanoparticles with average size 32 nm are uniformly entangled with in RGO layers. The UV–Visible absorption spectrum of nanocomposite depicts the reduction of GO to RGO along with the formation of Ag nanoparticles with the presence of characteristic surface Plasmon resonance (SPR) peak of Ag nanoparticles at 422 nm. The performance of prepared nanocomposite has been tested as the active Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) substrate for Rhodamine 6G with detection limit 0.1 μM.