Synthesis and Photoluminesence Study of Reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO)/ZnO for Solar Energy Absorbing Materials

Materials combining reduced graphene oxide (rGO) from coconut shells and commercial ZnO have been synthesized by dry-mixing in weight ratio of 1:2, 2:2, and 3:2. For photoluminesence (PL) characterization, the solutions with concentration of rGO/ZnO in aquadest up to 0.003 mg/mL were prepared. The absorbing photon energy by the samples at wavelength 280-426 nm (ultraviolet-purple) has induced electron transition to conduction band. Further, the returning electron to valence band was followed by photon emission at wavelength of 530-880 nm (green-infrared). The PL intensity was observed to drastically enhance with increasing content of rGO in the solution by 252.5%, 285.0% and 291.3% for the corresponding samples compared to the solution containing pure ZnO. The rGO/ZnO materials exhibit higher absorbance with wider wavelength range, and therefore can potentially be used as solar energy absorbing materials to enhance the efficiency of solar cell.