Facile construction of sandwich-like composited Sm2MoO6/ZnO/rGO and its activity in photodecomposition of ibuprofen

Abstract

In this study, Sandwich-like Sm2MoO6/ZnO/rGO (SMZG) composite is produced by the simple hydrothermal method. Various techniques are used to investigate the physicochemical characteristics and morphologies of these heterostructured photocatalysts. The SMZG nanocomposite was successfully formed and the efficiency was tested with photodegradation of Ibuprofen (IBP). XRD analysis confirmed the formation of the body-centered monoclinic structure of Sm2MoO6 compound anchored on the surface of the hexagonal primitive structure of ZnO. According to the DRS UV–Visible spectrum, the nanocomposite photocatalyst has the lowest bandgap (3.12 eV) when compared to Sm2MoO6 (SM), ZnO, and Sm2MoO6/ZnO (SMZ). Under visible-light irradiation for 90 min, the prepared Sm2MoO6/ZnO/rGO (loaded with 20 wt% of Sm2MoO6 and 10 wt% of rGO) accomplish ca. 96.73% IBP photodegradation. The optimum catalyst photodegradation processes can be analytically defined as a function of different catalysts, catalyst dose, and reaction medium pH. As per the scavenging experiments, O2•- radicals are the active species in photodegradation. All these findings provide fresh insight into how to build photocatalysts with high in photodegradation efficiency, inexpensive in cost, rapid response time, and reusability.