• Khanra, Partha
• Das, Ashok Kumar
• Lee, Joong Hee
• Kim, Nam Hoon
• Srivastava, Manish

Abstract

<jats:p>Graphene/CeO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> nanocomposite has been successfully prepared by directly growing CeO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> nanoparticles on graphene sheets via in-situ reduction of graphene oxide containing the metal precursor. The presence of cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) results the formation of CeO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution. The structural, morphological, particles size and optical properties of the synthesized products were investigated through X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and UVvis absorbance spectroscopy, respectively. The XRD pattern shows that graphene/CeO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> nanocomposite is highly crystalline in nature. Growth of CeO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> nanoparticles with size in range of 5-18 nm on the graphene sheet were observed by TEM measurement. Optical energy band gap was calculated to be ~3.30 eV corresponding to direct transition. The catalytic activity of the synthesized nanocomposite was investigated taking hydrazine hydrate as a model system. Significant enhancement in the peak current with respect to CeO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> was observed on graphene/CeO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> nanocomposite-based electrode demonstrating the higher catalytic activity of graphene/CeO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> nanocomposite-based electrode.</jats:p>

Topics

• nanoparticle
• nanocomposite
• impedance spectroscopy
• x-ray diffraction
• transmission electron microscopy
• Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy