Study on the synthesis and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy of graphene-based nanocomposites decorated with noble metal nanoparticles

A wet chemical approach to synthesize Au–graphene (Au–G), Ag–G and Ag@Au–G hybrid nanocomposites in the water-vitamin C system using graphene oxide and noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) is reported in this paper. AFM, TEM, UV–vis absorption, Raman spectroscopy and XRD are employed to characterize the morphology, optical properties and analyze crystal characteristics. Ag@Au–G nanocomposites have stronger surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity than that of pure Au–G and Ag–G. So the Ag@Au–G nanocomposites can be used not only for SERS, but also to exhibit good compatibility in biological detection. It is expected that these hybrid materials can be used as new functional building blocks to assemble novel three-dimensional (3D) complex multicomponent nanostructures, which are believed to be useful for nanodevices.