The development of future electronics depends on the availability of suitable functional materials. Printed electronics, for example, relies on access to highly conductive, inexpensive and printable materials, while strong light absorption and low carrier recombination rates are demanded in photocatalysis industry. Despite all efforts to develop new materials, it still remains a challenge to have all the desirable aspects in a single material. One possible route towards novel functional materials, with improved and unprecedented physical properties, is to form composites of different selected materials.

In this work, we report on hydrothermal growth and characterization of graphene/zinc oxide (GR/ZnO) nanocomposites, suited for electronics and photocatalysis application. For conductive purposes, highly Al-doped ZnO nanorods grown on graphene nanoplates (GNPs) prevent the GNPs from agglomerating and promote conductive paths between the GNPs. The effect of the ZnO nanorod morphology and GR dispersity on the nanocomposite conductivity and GR/ZnO nanorod bonding strength were investigated by conductivity measurements and optical spectroscopy. The inspected samples show that growth in high pH solutions promotes a better graphene dispersity, higher doping and enhanced bonding between the GNPs and the ZnO nanorods. Growth in low pH solutions yield samples characterized by a higher conductivity and a reduced number of surface defects.

In addition, different GR/ZnO nanocomposites, decorated with plasmonic silver iodide (AgI) nanoparticles, were synthesized and analyzed for solar-driven photocatalysis. The addition of Ag/AgI generates a strong surface plasmon resonance effect involving metallic Ag0, which redshifts the optical absorption maximum into the visible light region enhancing the photocatalytic performance under solar irradiation. A wide range of characterization techniques including, electron microscopy, photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction confirm a successful formation of photocatalysts.

Our findings show that the novel proposed GR-based nanocomposites can lead to further development of efficient photocatalyst materials with applications in removal of organic pollutants, or for fabrication of large volumes of inexpensive porous conjugated GR-semiconductor composites.