Growth in defects and surface area for the photocatalytic performance of GO-based Fe-doped bismuth oxide mesoporous nanocomposite

Abstract

The present research work employed a hydrothermal technique to synthesize GO-based Pure Bi2O3 and GO-based Fe-doped Bi2O3 mesoporous nanocomposites. X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, FE-SEM, EDAX, UV–Vis, Photoluminescence, and BET were introduced to characterize the nanocomposites that were synthesized. The photocatalytic degradation of Congo red and Methylene Blue-Methyl Orange mixed dye under solar light irradiation was then scrutinized. The results showed that the photocatalytic efficiency of GO-based 0.5 % Fe doped Bi2O3 was significantly greater than all other synthesized samples, with 91.57 % in 90 min for Congo red and 91.47 % in 120 min for MO-MB dyes. The enhancement in the degradation of harmful dyes in GO/0.5 % Fe doped Bi2O3 nanocomposite was attributable to a larger surface area of about 102.571 m2/g, the development of defects, low band gap and the production of higher active sites. According to the regeneration investigation, GO-based 0.5 % Fe doped Bi2O3 nanocomposite can be effectively recycled up to three cycles while keeping high efficiency without a significant reduction in degradation rate and excellent stability.