Green synthesis of graphene oxide/Ag nanocomposites via laser ablation in water for SERS applications

Abstract

The need for metallic nanoparticle decorated nanocomposites of graphene oxide finds much attention by reason of their technological applications. Unlike the traditional methods, herein, we present a laser-assisted synthesis of silver nanoparticles that are anchored onto the graphene oxide (GO) by a one-step reaction. Second harmonics of an Nd:YAG laser is used for the in situ generation of silver nanoparticles(Ag NPs) from a silver target ablated in an aqueous suspension of graphene oxide and thereby to make GO/Ag nanocomposite. UV-Vis and fluorescent spectroscopy and HRTEM upholds the optical and morphological characteristics of GO/Ag nanocomposite. Particularly, the GO/Ag nanocomposites exhibit excellent Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering(SERS) performance.