Ag@graphene oxide nanocomposite as an efficient visible-light plasmonic photocatalyst for the degradation of organic pollutants: A facile green synthetic approach

We report a simple and effective supercritical route to decorate silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) on graphene oxide (GO) using a commonly available and non-toxic glucose as a reducing agent. Transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis confirmed that Ag NPs of size around 8-20 nm were coated on the GO surface under optimized experimental condition. Ag NPs on the GO surface were predominantly spherical in shape and well dispersed. The experimental results proved that the as-synthesized GO/Ag nanocomposite could be used as a highly efficient photocatalyst for the degradation of Rhodamine 123 dye and acetaldehyde under visible-light irradiation. The degradation results indicated that the photocatalytic performance of nanocomposite was greatly enhanced owing to the improved adsorption performance and separation efficiency of photo-generated carriers. The nanocomposite maintains a high level activity even after four times of recycle. Furthermore, the nanocomposite exhibited excellent antibacterial activity against gram-positive and gram-negative microorganisms. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.