Delocalization of electronic states in graphene oxide stabilised mesoporous silica nanoparticles revealed using photoluminescence

Abstract

Mesoporous silica aerogel obtained through a sol–gel process when surface treated with 2-D graphene oxide sheets reveals many fascinating features particularly, leading to multiple coordination complexes based on amide linkages. These could arise from reaction of amine groups present in the silica network and carboxylic acid groups in the edge planes of 2-D GO sheets as demonstrated and probed using photoluminescence spectra. New centres arising from the GO networking with silica nanoparticles seem to be more covalent (strong delocalization) as reflected from the asymmetric green luminescence bands.