Physical investigation of thionine-graphene nanocomposite synthesized using different concentrations of graphene oxide / Muhammad Aidil Ibrahim ... [et al.]

Nanomaterials such as graphene is popular amongst researchers because of its capability to
increase electrical conductivity. In some researches, graphene was composited with thionine
to induce stability when dispersed in water-based solvents especially in fabricating electrodes
for biosensor applications. In this research, the concentration of graphene in the ThionineGraphene (Th-G) nanocomposite was varied to observe the stability of the composition
produced. Different concentrations of graphene oxide (GO), 0.1, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 mg/mL were
mixed with 2 mM thionine producing different Th-G samples and were observed through
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis)
characterization were used to investigate the π-π interaction of graphene with thionine and to
confirm the presence of both molecules in the samples. Physical observation of Th-G
nanocomposite with 0.1mg/mL of graphene physically appeared to be most stable. While the
UV-vis investigation confirms the presence of π-π interaction hence further proves the
stability of the nanocomposite containing 0.1 mg/mL of GO when the absorbant peaks of
graphene and thionine were the most prominent compared to the other samples