Fabrication of Janus graphene hybrids with controlled structure and high stability

Abstract

Janus hybrids, the anisotropic materials, have displayed very strong potentials in diverse research fields like life science and photology due to their unique properties. In this study, using graphene as an efficient nanoparticles (NPs) carrier, we present the fabrication of two-dimensional (2D) Janus hybrids (gold NPs/graphene) superstructures through a rapid, solventless sputtering method in 10-30 seconds. The micropores in graphene (~0.5 nm) is much smaller than the sputtered gold NPs, which can allow the sheet material to mesh gold NPs in one side to form a Janus structure. The size and morphology of gold NPs can be fine controlled on graphene by adjusting the sputtering current and time, while the resulting graphene hybrids enjoy tunable NPs area density and desirable thermal stability. The performance of hybrids has also been explored through standard electrochemical experiments.