The weak photon absorption and fast carrier kinetics of graphene limit its application in photodetection. This limitation can be overcome by introducing photosensitive nanostructures to graphene. Herein we report the synthesis of a ZnO nanorod/graphene heterostructure by a facile in situ solution growth method. By combining the attributes of photosensitive ZnO nanorods and highly conductive graphene, we for the first time demonstrate a highly sensitive visible-blind ultraviolet (UV) sensor based on graphene related heterostructure. The photoresponsibility of the UV sensor can reach 22.7 A W⁻¹, which is over 45,000 fold higher than that of single graphene sheet based photodetectors.

We report a simple but highly cooperative ensemble with CdS and MoS₂ nanocrystals dispersed on graphene sheets: it is demonstrated that CdS nanocrystals can capture light energy and facilitate excited electron transfer to MoS₂ for catalytic hydrogen production via the 2-D graphene which plays a key role as an efficient electron mediator.