Photocatalytic activity of GO/Fe&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; fabricated by Sri Lankan graphite under visible light irradiation

L Usgodaarachchi,C Thambiliyagodage

doi:10.4038/josuk.v14i2.8036

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) was synthesized using Sri Lankan naturally available graphite and Fe3O4 nanoparticles were successfully incorporated fabricating magnetically separable GO/Fe3O4 nanocomposite. The synthesized nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and FT-IR spectroscopy. Crystalline phases of GO and Fe3O4 nanoparticles were identified by XRD patterns, while the presence of functional groups such as –COOH, OH, CH2 was confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy. SEM images show that Fe3O4 nanoparticles with an average particle size of 107 nm ranging between 56-150 nm are dispersed on GO while restacking and folding of the nanosheets have been observed with incorporation of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The photocatalytic performance of the photocatalysts was evaluated on photodegradation of methylene blue under visible light irradiation. The GO/Fe3O4 shows better adsorption behavior and excellent photocatalytic activity where it could be successfully used for three cycles without significant activity loss. This is due to the enhanced charge separation resulted due to the presence of GO sheets and better interactions between GO and Fe3O4.

Highlights

Population growth with its increased needs has triggered industrialization which contributes to environmental pollution tremendously
We report the synthesis of Graphene oxide (GO)/Fe3O4 composite using Sri Lankan graphite
When GO was mixed with an aqueous solution of Fe2+ and Fe3+ (1:2), metal ions of iron get coordinated with oxygen containing groups on the surface of GO

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Population growth with its increased needs has triggered industrialization which contributes to environmental pollution tremendously. Nanocomposites of graphene oxide/Fe3O4 have attracted interest recently due to it exhibits rich mechanical, electrical, and magnetic properties. They show excellent photocatalytic properties which could be ascribed to the photo-generated charge carriers immediately transfers to graphene sheets from metal oxide nanoparticles increasing the separation of electron/hole pairs and improve the degradation mechanism (Khan et al, 2019). Graphene oxide/Fe3O4 have been used to photocatalytically degrade dyes including methylene blue(Gong, 2016; Baptisttella et al, 2021), rhodamine B(Wang et al., 2018), reactive black(Baptisttella et al, 2021), acid blue(Baptisttella et al, 2021) etc. The authors report the synthesis of Graphene oxide/Fe3O4 using naturally available Sri Lankan graphite for the first time and their photocatalytic activity to degrade methylene blue under visible light

MATERIALS AND METHODS

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS