Assembling gold and platinum nanoparticles on resorcinarene modified graphene and their electrochemical applications

Abstract

An amphiphilic amino resorcinarene (T) was modified onto the surface of graphene oxide (GO) through covalent bond forces and non-covalent bond forces to prepare GO–T. The water-soluble graphene–T (GN–T) composite was prepared by the reduction of GO–T. Then, pre-prepared platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) and different sized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) could self-assemble onto the surface of GN–T through the plentiful amido groups of T to obtain GN–T–AuNPs and GN–T–PtNPs hybrid materials. It was verified that the AuNPs and PtNPs could be uniformly scattered on GN and the amount of AuNPs and PtNPs modified on GN could be adjusted by changing the weight ratio of T/GO. GN-T-PtNPs and GN-T-AuNPs composites showed the characteristics of being dispersible, stable and recyclable in water. Electrochemical results obviously revealed that GN–T–AuNPs and GN–T–PtNPs composites exhibited outstanding electrocatalytic properties.