In-situ growth of Cu nanoparticles on reduced graphene oxide nanosheets and their excellent catalytic performance

Reduced graphene oxide (RGO)-Cu nanocomposites were prepared for the first time through one-pot co-reduction of graphene oxide and Cu2+ ions in ethylene glycol medium. The as-synthesized products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The in-situ grown Cu nanoparticles with adjustable loading amount are uniformly anchored on the surface of RGO nanosheets. The RGO-Cu nanocomposites exhibit extraordinarily superior catalytic performance, with which the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol into 4-Aminophenol can finish within 40 s and the apparent rate constant is as high as 6.0 min−1 under 25 °C. It was found that a suitable copper content is important to optimizing the catalytic activity of the nanocomposites. The kinetics of the reduction reaction at different temperatures was systematically investigated to determine the activation parameters, from which the mechanism of the enhanced catalytic activity is revealed. The RGO-Cu catalysts with excellent catalytic performance and relatively low cost show great promise for the catalytic applications.