Large scale production of three dimensional carbon nanotube pillared graphene network for bi-functional optical properties

Herein, a novel synthesis process for large scale in situ growth of three dimensional carbon nanotube (CNT) pillared graphene hybrid nanostructure network (GCNT) is demonstrated where simultaneous reduction of graphene oxide (GO) and formation of CNT pillared on the reduced GO (RGO) sheet is carried out in a single-step in a chemical vapor deposition setup. Furthermore, this GCNT (graphene-carbon nanotube lattice) network exhibits optical bi-functionality where GCNT quenches the luminescence of Rhodamine organic dye while displays its own defect-induced strong photoluminescence (PL) which is merely reported in literature. Additionally, the quenching effects are examined using Rhodamine solution with variant carbon nanostructures. Moreover, time-resolved spectroscopic studies also show the effect of quenching in lifetime experiments. The quenching lifetime follows the sequence GCNT < RGO < CNT which is in good correlation with observed PL quenching results.