Graphene nanosheets decorated with Pd, Pt, Au, and Ag nanoparticles: Synthesis, characterization, and catalysis applications

We report that noble metal nanopartcles (Pd, Pt, Au, and Ag) decorated-graphene nanosheets can be synthesized with the template of graphene oxide by a one-pot solution-based method. The resulting hybrid materials are characterized by transmission electronic microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electronic microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy, which demonstrate that the metal nanoparticles have been uniformly deposited on the surfaces of graphene nanosheets. Our results in turn verify that the carboxylic groups of graphene oxide are statistically distributed on its whole sheet surface rather than just at its edges. The graphene-metal nanohybrids can be used as catalysts in the reduction of potassium hexacyanoferrate(III) with NaBH4 in aqueous solution. Our results suggest that graphene is a superior substrate to support metals for applications in the heterogeneous catalysis.

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