Facile synthesis of silver doped WO3 nanocomposite with 2-D reduced graphene oxide to boost photocatalytic efficiency

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) carbonaceous substances and their nanohybrid have lately garnered great interest as photocatalysts owing to outstanding contribution toward photocatalytic degradation and purification. A novel 2-D rGO dependent Ag/WO3 photocatalyst was successfully fabricated using hydrothermal and ultrasonic synthesis processes. The photocatalysts properties such as surface, structure, morphology and optical were studied using modern analytical techniques. The photocatalytic effectiveness of the synthesized product was evaluated by measuring the rate of Methylene blue (MB) dye mineralization when exposed to a visible source. By virtue of its lower charge transfer resistance (Rct; 0.6 Ω) and better electrical conductivity, the photocatalyst demonstrated much stronger photocatalytic behavior toward dye removal than pure tungsten trioxide and silver doped WO3 photocatalysts. The Ag/WO3/rGO photocatalyst degraded the dye at a rate of almost 96.92% faster than Ag/WO3 (0.011 min−1) and WO3 (0.009 min−1). The separation of photogenerated electron (e-) and hole (h+) pairs and the rise in optical absorbance contributed to a notable improvement in WO3′s photocatalytic efficiency after adding silver dopant and rGO sheets. Transient photocurrent measurements revealed that the graphene-based material has persistent photo-excited charge carriers.