Mulberry-like gold nanospheres supported on graphene nanosheets: one-pot synthesis, characterization and photoelectrochemical property

Abstract

A facile route was proposed to synthesize mulberry-like gold nanospheres (MGNS) uniformly deposited on graphene nanosheets (GNs). Aniline was used as the reducing agent of both tetrachloroaurate and graphene oxide (GO). GO was partially reduced to GNs and acted as a support of the MGNS. The influence of the reaction time, reaction temperature and aniline concentration on the morphology of the MGNS were investigated. The resulting MGNS–GNs composites were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and electrochemical techniques. The formation mechanism of the MGNS–GNs was proposed based on the contrast experiments. The results illustrated that GO plays a key role in the uniform distribution of the MGNS and polyaniline is responsible for the formation of the MGNS. Compared with GO, the MGNS–GNs showed an enhanced photoelectrochemical property, which has potential application in the fields of sensors and energy.