Synthesis and characterization of reduced graphene oxide metal sulfide nanocomposites for multifunctional applications

Abstract

This work presents a detailed view of the spin-coated reduced graphene oxide (rGO) based metal sulfide (MS) nanocomposite films. Nanocomposites are important novel materials which could play a vital role in the scientific world to tackle the emerging situations. Graphene and its derivatives open up a plethora of opportunities in the research area due to its unique novel physiochemical, optical, electrical and mechanical properties. Graphene based nanocomposite materials could be used in a wide range of applications like solar cell, Supercapacitors, Hydrogen production, Water purification, battery electrodes, Semiconducting Industries, Biological fields and emerging fields like Spintronics and Valleytronics. newlineGraphene based nanocomposites have emerged as a promising material and have taken a centre stage which has kindled the interest of various scientists and research groups. However, not much research happened in the optimization of the graphene based nano-composites and finding the type of band alignment in the heterojunctions and application in THz field. Therefore, current work lays its focus on the optimization of the preparation of graphene-based nanocomposites through spin-coating Layer-by-Layer (LBL) method, effect of various weight percentage of rGO addition on Metal sulfide (CdS, ZnS, SnS2, Sb2S3 and MnS), studying structural, optical, electrical properties and studying their optical constants in THz region and investigate its type of band gap alignment on nanocomposites to enhance their multifunctional applications. newlineAll the MS/rGO nanocomposite films grown by LBL method were characterized with the help of different techniques like X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning electron spectroscopy (FESEM), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV-Visible-near Infrared spectroscopy and Hall measurement. Of all the MS/rGO nanocomposites, by finding the type of band alignment in heterojunctions, these MS/rGO nanocomposites can be utilized for optoelectronic devices, photocatalytic devices and tunnelling field effect transistors. newline newlineKeywords: Reduced graphene oxide (rGO), Metal sulfide (MS), Nanocomposites, sol-gel, spin coating, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Valence band edge (VBE), conduction band edge (CBE), Type of band alignments and THz Optical Constants. newline newline