Ethylene glycol assisted hydrothermal synthesis of graphene sheets supporting CdS nanospheres for quenched photoluminescence

In this paper, we report the obtention of graphene–cadmium sulfide (G/CdS) nanocomposites were successfully synthesized by the ethylene glycol assisted hydrothermal method. The structure and composition of the obtained nanocomposites were confirmed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. XRD patterns showed that the CdS nanospheres belong to hexagonal structure. SEM and TEM images suggested a homogeneous distribution of CdS nanospheres coated on the graphene sheets successfully. FT-IR and XPS analyses indicated that GO has been simultaneously reduced to graphene nanosheets during the deposition of CdS nanocomposite. Moreover, PL investigations demonstrated that the G/CdS nanocomposites displayed significant decrease in PL emission compared with the corresponding sphere-like CdS nanoparticles. The investigation gave a promise to the development of original yet highly efficient graphene oxide-based novel electrode material in optical detectors.