Effects of reducing agents on the synthesis of Ag/rGO nanocomposites

A facile and rapid microwave-assisted green route has been used for the formation of Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) and the reduction of graphene oxide (GO) simultaneously with five different reducing agents, sodium hydroxide (NaOH), potassium hydroxide (KOH), sodium citrate, urea and ascorbic acid. The experimental results show that the structural properties and phase of Ag/reduced graphene oxide (Ag/rGO) nanocomposites are connected with reducing agent. AgNPs can be uniformly and compactly anchored on reduced GO (rGO) surface in the microwave field for 2 min by the assist of NaOH or KOH as reducing agent. The OH− can not only accelerate the ionization of acidic functional groups but also act as the nucleophile for Ag+. By addition of sodium citrate and urea, the GO sample remains its original structure, and Ag+ tends to form Ag2CO3, which then decomposes into Ag2O. While in the urea solution, Ag2O turns into [Ag(NH3)2]+ ions with abundant urea, then [Ag(NH3)2]+ ions are reduced to Ag0 by electrons, which leads to both Ag and Ag2O phase coexisting in the urea treated samples. In addition, it can be found that NaOH shows the best results in terms of the crystallinity and purity of Ag grains anchored on rGO surface.