Journal
NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 8, Issue 5, Pages 448-457Publisher
AMER SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHERS
DOI: 10.1166/nnl.2016.2172
Keywords
Graphene Oxide; Zirconia; Photocatalytic Degradation; Nanocomposite; UV Illumination
Funding
- National Plan for Science, Technology and innovation (MAARIFAH)-King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology-the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [11-NAN 2057-03]
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A series of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) supported zirconia (ZrO2) nanocomposites with 1, 2 and 5 wt.% GO were synthesized using the sol-gel technique. The reduced graphene oxide/zirconia composites were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) and, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and N-2 adsorption and desorption measurements. The photocatalytic performance of the prepared samples was evaluated by monitoring the degradation of p-nitrophenol in aqueous suspension under UV illumination. The photocatalytic activity is strongly affected by the concentration of graphene in the ZrO2. The band gap values calculated from the Kubelka-Munk method showed a pronounced decrease upon increasing the amount of GO from 3.05 eV for pure ZrO2 to 2.77 eV for 5 wt.% rGO/ZrO2. Graphene serves as a good electron collector and transporter that effectively hindered the recombination of photo-generated electron-hole pairs resulting in high performance of photocatalytic degradation of p-nitrophenol.
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