Graphenide Solutions: A Chemical Platform for Nanoparticle-Nanocarbon Composites.

Graphenide solutions, comprising charged graphene layers in aprotic organic solutions, are exploited as a chemical platform to graft transition-metal oxide nanoparticles, namely nickel, manganese, copper, and cobalt oxide, onto the carbon framework. The reduction process is driven and controlled by the graphenide solution yielding nanoparticles with comparable sizes for all studied metal salts, well below 10 nm. The synthesis is generic and is not limited by the type of metal salt, because the reduced graphene layers serve simultaneously as both substrates and reducing agents. This reaction is reliable, reproducible, and versatile, generating materials for catalytic purposes without requiring any kind of stabilization or capping agents.