Preparation and characterization of Al doped ZnO NPs/graphene nanocomposites synthesized by a facile one-step solvothermal method

Aluminum doped ZnO nanoparticles (AZO-NPs)/graphene nanocomposites, with different Al concentrations, were successfully synthesized by a facile one-step solvothermal method at low temperature. SEM and TEM images of the prepared samples indicated that AZO-NPs have been grown and rather well distributed on the surface of graphene sheets. The average particle size of AZO-NPs was found to decrease with increasing Al concentration. The XRD analysis confirmed the formation of AZO-NPs/graphene nanocomposites with hexagonal wurtzite structure. The results of FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy showed that the oxygen-containing groups, which exist on the surface of the graphene oxide sheets, are removed and the graphene oxide is reduced to graphene during the synthesis procedure. Our results revealed that the simple low cost method used in this work is suitable for the synthesis of graphene-based semiconductor nanocomposites.