Efficacious separation of electron-hole pairs in CeO2-Al2O3 nanoparticles embedded GO heterojunction for robust visible-light driven dye degradation

Herein, we have developed a facile and one pot synthesis of ternary CeO2-Al2O3@GO nanocomposite via wet chemical method. The structural and morphological characteristics of the synthesized nanocomposite was investigated using UV DRS, FT-IR, XRD, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, EDX and TGA analysis. The CeO2-Al2O3@GO composite was tested for its ability to photocatalytically degrade Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light illumination. The influence of various operational parameters such as pH, catalyst dosage and initial dye concentration on the photo degradation was investigated in detail. The synthesized CeO2-Al2O3@GO composite shows greater photocatalytic degradation of RhB (99.0%) under visible light irradiation than the raw CeO2, Al2O3, and GO catalysts and any other reported nanocomposite materials. The recyclability results also demonstrate the excellent stability and reusability of the CeO2-Al2O3@GO nanocomposite. This work will be beneficial in the field of industrial and engineering applications in the degradation of organic pollutants. Also, a study of this kind will definitely stimulate many researches in the recently emerging field of solar-driven water splitting. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.