  High surface area graphene sheets were obtained by electrochemical
exfoliation of graphite in an acid media under constant potential conditions.
Filtration and centrifugation processes played an important role in order to
obtain stable dispersions in water. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and
transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging revealed highly exfoliated
crystalline samples of ~5(\mum). Raman, FT-IR and XPS spectroscopy further
confirmed the high quality of the exfoliated material. The electrochemically
exfoliated graphene (EEG) was decorated with gold nanoparticles (AuNP) using
sodium cholate (SC) as a buffer layer. This approach allowed for a non-covalent
functionalization without altering the desirable electronic properties of the
EEG. The AuNP-EEG samples were characterized with various techniques including
absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy. These samples displayed a
fluorescence signal using an excitation wavelength of 290nm. The calculated
quantum yield (?) for these samples was 40.04%, a high efficiency compared to
previous studies using solution processable graphene.
