Biogenic Reduction of Graphene Oxide: An Efficient Superparamagnetic Material for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Here, we present the reduction of the graphene oxide (GO) sheets by means of the two reducing agents, i.e., ascorbic acid and lemon juice. As-prepared carbonaceous substances (rGO-AA and rGO-Lemon) exhibits good room temperature (RT) ferromagnetism even in absence of d- and f-electrons as well as they show good hydrogen generation capacity via photocatalytic water splitting. The amount of H2 evolved for Pt/GO, Pt/rGO-AA, and Pt/rGO-Lemon systems was 32.0790, 23.1649, and 38.0790 mmol h(-1) g(-1), respectively. The results go hand in hand and are supported by the reasonably good spin concentration due to the presence of a large amount of the free-radical-like carbon, long-range direct/indirect exchange or interaction between graphene matrix, fragmented graphitic zones, C-defect nonbonding localized electronic states, and flat-band quasi-localized (QL) states induced by the point defects.