Leaf extract mediated biogenic process for the decoration of graphene with silver nanoparticles

Soy leaf extract mediated bioreduction process has been successfully employed for the decoration of graphene sheets with silver nanoparticles. Silver content on the graphene sheets has been varied by manipulating the silver nitrate concentration in the reaction mixture. Using transmission electron microscopy, it has been found that the silver nanoparticles deposited on the graphene sheets existed in spherical shape with the diameter range of 2-25 nm. The crystalline features of the graphene samples with silver nanoparticles were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction. XRD patterns illustrated the co-existence of graphene and silver phases, in which, the silver nanoparticles found with the cubic crystal structure with a lattice constant of 4.0853 Å. SEM-EDS analysis was utilized to analyze the silver content of the samples. It was shown with an increase in silver nitrate concentration from 1 mM to 5 mM, the silver content in the samples increased from 0.35% to 1.05%.