Photocatalytic preparation of graphene and its photothermal conversion effect on phase transition of PNIPAAm hydrogels

摘要

Herein we obtained a photocatalytic reduced graphene oxide (RGO) using tetrapod-like zinc oxide (T-ZnO) as a photocatalyst for the first time. Atomic force microscopic (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results confirmed that the graphene sheets were prepared in large scale and consisted of less than 10 layers of graphene. The well-formed RGO sheets were embedded in poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) hydrogels as a photon antenna to generate heat under the near-infrared (NIR) laser light irradiation. The result showed that a phase transition of the graphene-embedded PNIPAAm hydrogels might be triggered by the NIR laser light irradiation. The NIR-laser-driven phase transition indicated a potential application of the composite hydrogels.