Ag2CO3 / Magnetic reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite as advanced visible light photocatalytic hybrid materials for efficient degradation of azo dye

¹Chemical Engineering Department, Military Technical College, Cairo, Egypt

²Department of Analysis and Evaluation, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Cairo, Nasr city P.B. 11727, Egypt^.

Adv. Mater. Lett., 2019, 10 (7), pp 491-498

DOI: 10.5185/amlett.2019.2189

Publication Date (Web): Jan 14, 2019

Copyright © IAAM-VBRI Press

E-mail: m.aboelfotoh@mtc.edu.eg 

Abstract

Due to intrinsic properties of graphene-like high electrical conductivity and large surface area, these properties make it an attractive matrix for composites. In this work, reduced graphene oxide (RG)/Fe₃O₄ (M)/Ag₂CO₃ (S) hybrid nano-composite (MRGS) has been effectively produced by coprecipitation techniques. The prepared composites were investigated by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transforms infrared spectra (FT-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-vis/DRS), Raman and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The prepared MRGS nano-composite shows significant enhancement in the degradation rate of Tartrazine dye (TZ) compared to commercial photo-catalyst such as TiO₂. Meanwhile, the visible light absorption of the MRGS nano-composite is progressively refining with the increase of the percentage of Ag₂CO₃ on the surface of (RG). The obtained MRGS 75 photo-catalyst shows the best photo-catalytic activity for TZ under visible light irradiation. The close contact between Ag₂CO₃ and RG in the composite leads to accelerating the charge transfer on Ag₂CO₃ to RG and thus enhancing the photocatalytic activity. Additionally, the prepared composite displays superb separability and significant stability.  © VBRI Press.

Keywords

Magnetic graphene, photo-degradation, magnetic graphene silver carbonate and tartrazine dye.