Aqueous solution synthesis of reduced graphene oxide-germanium nanoparticles and their electrical property testing

Aqueous solution synthesis of reduced graphene oxide-germanium nanoparticles (RGO-GeNPs) was developed using graphene oxide (GO) as stabilizer, which could be conducive to obtain better excellent electrical properties. The information about morphology and chemical composition of the nanomaterials were obtained by TEM, FTIR, EDS, and XRD measurements. Stable aqueous dispersibility of RGO-GeNPs was further improved by poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) to obtain amphiphilic polymer-coated RGO-GeNPs (PSS-RGO-GeNPs). A possible mechanism to interpret the formation of RGO-GeNPs was proposed. The as-synthesized RGO-GeNPs showed excellent battery performance when used as an anode material for Li ion batteries. The resulting nanocomposites exhibited high specific capacity and good cycling stability after 80 cycles. This study showed a facile strategy to synthetize graphene and Ge nanocomposites which can be a hopeful anode material with excellent electrical properties for lithium ion batteries.