Role of surfactants on the synthesis of copper (II) oxide nanosheets-rGO composites

CuO-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) composite is the potential candidate in the fields of optoelectronics and sensor applications. In the present work, we synthesized CuO nanosheets-rGO composites (CG) by a simple room-temperature preparation method. The prepared composites were named as CG1 (without any surfactant), CG2 (with polyethyleneglycol-400), and CG3 (polyvinylpyrrolidone). The equal intensity of (002,111)/(200,111) patterns in XRD (monoclinic CuO), double absorption peaks in UV–Vis spectra at 263 nm and 294 nm, and the FE-SEM images are evidenced for the sheet-like morphology of CuO. The FT-IR bands appeared at 547 and 596 cm−1 for the Cu–O vibrations. Micro-Raman studies also evidenced the formation of CuO-rGO structures. CG3 has larger sheets compared to others due to the interaction of long-chain PVP with rGO as well as CuO. The peak at 933.5 eV in XPS spectrum of CG1 confirms the presence of CuO in the sample.