Controlling the Decoration of the Reduced Graphene Oxide Surface with Pyrene‐Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles

Abstract

We exploited a non‐covalent approach based on π‐stacking interactions to address the formation of hybrids between pyrene‐functionalized gold nanoparticles (PyAuNPs) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO), in which the former are distributed homogeneously on the surface of the latter with a high degree of coverage. We used water soluble PyAuNPs of two different average dimensions, namely 2 and 8 nm, in which the pendant pyrene moieties were introduced within a mixed monolayer with a choline derivative. The combination with RGO originates highly insoluble materials, in which microscopy evidences a complete adhesion of the PyAuNPs onto the carbon nanomaterial layers in a highly homogeneous fashion, with no traces of free particles, confirming the high affinity between pyrene‐functionalized species and conjugated carbon nanostructure surfaces.