Nowdays, nanocomposites containing ZnO with various morphologies and graphene, graphene oxide (GO) or reduced graphene oxide (rGO) have been attracting many researchers according to their properties and board application in optoelectronic devices. In this study, rGO/ZnO nanorods were synthesized using different procedures. In the first procedure, ZnO nanorods prepared by using the hydrothermal method. In the second procedure, the surface of ZnO nanorods was coated with rGO using the drop coating process. The pure ZnO, rGO and rGO/ZnO nanorods were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the average crystallite size was calculated using Debye-Scherrer equation.

In this work, the effects of graphene oxide (GO) concentrations (1.5 wt.%, 2.5 wt.%, and 5 wt.%) on the structural, morphological, optical, and luminescence properties of zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs)/GO nanocomposites, synthesized by a facile hydrothermal process, were investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of NRs revealed the hexagonal wurtzite structure for all composites with an average coherence length of about 40–60 nm. A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study confirmed the presence of transparent and wrinkled, dense GO nanosheets among flower-like ZnO nanorods, depending on the GO amounts used in preparation. Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) absorption spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL) measurements revealed the impact of GO concentration on the optical and luminescence properties of ZnO NRs/GO nanocomposites. The energy band gap of the ZnO nanorods was independent of GO concentration. Photoluminescence spectra of nanocomposites showed a significant decrease in the intensities in the visible light range and red shifted suggesting a charge transfer process. The nanocomposites’ chromaticity coordinates for CIE 1931 color space were estimated to be (0.33, 0.34), close to pure white ones. The obtained results highlight the possibility of using these nanocomposites to achieve good performance and suitability for optoelectronic applications.