The quenching of silver nanoparticles photoluminescence by graphene oxide: spectroscopic and morphological investigations

Graphene derivatives attracted tremendous attention world-wide owing to their promising properties and potential applications and interest in studying the photoluminescence quenching in nanomaterials has constantly been on the increase in recent years. In this sense, the current study provides an investigation of this optical phenomenon in graphene oxide (GO) -silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) composite (Ag-NPs/GO). The structural and morphological characterizations showed remarkable interactions between the two nanomaterials which has an important effect on their optical properties. In this regard, our observations revealed the quenching photoluminescence of silver nanoparticles by GO sheets. Indeed, the excited electrons of silver were attracted by the charged sheets of the GO causing the radiative recombination of electron and hole and/or a lower electron–hole recombination rate resulting in PL quenching. Considering the efficient fluorescence quenching of GO on AgNPs, we believe that the photoinduced electron transfer from AgNPs to GO should play an important role in quenching related applications.