Decorating graphene sheets with gold nanoparticles

Renewed interest in graphene architectures has opened up new avenues to utilize them in electronic and optoelectronic applications. The desire to design graphene-metal nanohybrid assemblies has led us to explore a solution-based approach of chemical reduction of AuCl4- ions in graphene suspensions. The gold particles anchored on octadecylamine functionalized graphene are readily suspendable in THF medium. The dependence of particle stability on the graphene concentration and SEM analysis indicate that the gold nanoparticles are well dispersed on graphene sheets. Transient absorption spectroscopy measurements suggest that the ultrafast disappearance of plasmon absorption and its recovery are unaffected,by the presence of graphene.