Fabrication of Ag-doped magnesium aluminate/ rGO composite: A highly efficient photocatalyst for visible light-driven photodegradation of crystal violet and phenol

Abstract

Magnesium aluminate (MgAl2O4, MAO) and silver doped magnesium aluminate (Ag–MgAl2O4, Ag-MAO) nanomaterials were fabricated using the co-precipitation technique. For the photo-catalytically degrading organic effluents such as crystal violet (CV) and phenol, the reduced graphene oxide composite (Ag–MgAl2O4@rGO, Ag-MAO@rGO) was prepared using the ultrasonication method. The formation of doped and bare MgAl2O4 was verified by XRD. Functional groups in synthesized photocatalysts were identified using the FTIR method. SEM analysis was used to look at the morphology. A UV–Visible spectrophotometer was used to perform the optical analysis. The bandgap energies for MAO and Ag-MAO were 2.55 eV and 2.40 eV respectively. Under the sunlight, the photocatalytic effectiveness of the prepared samples was examined. Ag-MAO@rGO displayed 81.89% degradation of CV and 40.51% degradation of phenol in the presence of sunlight. The principal photoactive species in case of the photocatalytic experiment are hydroxyl radicals.