Benzyl Alcohol Assisted Synthesis and Characterization of Highly Reduced Graphene Oxide (HRG)@ZrO₂ Nanocomposites

We demonstrate a one-step solvothermal synthesis of HRG@ZrO₂ nanocomposites using benzyl alcohol as solvent and stabilizing ligand. The as-synthesized HRG@ZrO₂ hybrid nanocomposites showed a homogeneous distribution of the ZrO₂ NPs (≈ 5 nm) onto HRG nanosheets. High resolution (HR)TEM, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the presence of cubic ZrO₂. The presence of benzyl alcohol as stabilizing ligand was demonstrated by ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The reduction of graphene oxide to HRG was also realized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). A study of the HRG@ZrO₂ formation mechanism revealed that benzyl alcohol adsorbs on HRG through π-π interactions between the planar benzene ring of benzyl alcohol and the HRG nanosheets. The hydroxyl groups act as anchor groups to facilitate the nucleation of ZrO₂ NPs. The effect of the metal oxide precursor concentration on the coating density of ZrO₂ NPs was studied by preparing HRG@ZrO₂ nanocomposites with different concentrations of zirconium precursor.