Facile Synthesis of Ce1-xFexO2/NiO/rGO Ternary Hybrid Heterostructures with Enhanced Visible Light mediated Photocatalytic Activity for Waterborne Pollutants

Abstract

In this article, we reported the two-step wet chemical co-precipitation and ultra-sonication route to synthesize the Ce0.95Fe0.05O2/NiO/rGO (CFN-rGO) ternary composite photocatalyst. The photocatalytic activity of the ternary composite was evaluated by the photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye under visible light irradiation. The CFN-rGO photocatalyst exhibited an excellent photocatalytic performance with 97% removal of RhB within 130 min of irradiation time, as compared to the bare Ce0.95Fe0.05O2/NiO (CFN) binary composite photocatalyst. The value of rate constant for RhB degradation was nine times higher with CFN-rGO when compared to the pure CFN catalyst. The superior photocatalytic activity of CFN-rGO is attributed to the presence of reduced graphene oxide (rGO), that effectively suppress the fast recombination of photo-generated electron-hole pairs which in turn find enough time to produce more reactive species for RhB dye degradation. The main photo-active species involved in photodegradation of RhB dye molecules were the hydroxyl radicals (HO•). Finally, the recyclability tests performed over CFN-rGO suggested good stability of the photocatalyst even after five cycles and hence, endorsing its potential as a candidate for practical photocatalytic applications.