Graphene oxide clay nanocomposite as an efficient photo-catalyst for degradation of cationic dye

Abstract

Development of nanocomposite for remediation of environmental pollutants like dye is essential in present day world. In this work, we successfully prepare graphene oxide–clay nanocomposite by different methods. The nanocomposite was characterized using various characterization techniques viz. Uv–visible spectroscopy, Fourier Transformed Infra-red spectroscopy, Dynamic light scattering, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. The graphene oxide-clay nanocomposite was very effective catalyst against photodegradation of exclusively cationic dye like methylene blue. But the prepared nanocomposite was not found to be effective catalyst against degradation of other anionic dyes like methyl orange and Eosin yellow. The graphene-oxide clay nanocomposite was found to be an efficient photocatalyst in degradation of methylene blue when compared with only clay or graphene oxide. It is also demonstrated in the work that the nanocomposite catalyst can be reused several times without effecting its efficiency, the percentage degradation was 85%, 75% and 75% for first, second and third cycle respectively.The mechanistic insight of clay-graphene oxide as a catalyst for only cationic dye is also discussed in the paper.