Enhanced photoluminescence in graphene wrapped hydrophobic zinc oxide

This article reports the synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) rod like structures over different substrates. The developed ZnO was further wrapped with graphene sheet and thus the hybrid was formed. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, UV–Vis and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy. After graphene wrapping the surface energy of ZnO reduced resulting enhanced hydrophobicity. Also, graphene inclusion enhances the photoluminescence intensity of the underlying ZnO for both band edge and defect induced transition. This enhancement in the PL intensity may be assigned to the supply of electron from the graphene to ZnO or surface plasmon resonance effect.