Photocatalytic performances of stand-alone graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanostructures

Abstract

The present study reports photocatalytic behaviors of stand-alone graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanostructures synthesized by improved Hummer’s method. The synthesized materials were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, ultra-violet visible (UV–Vis) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry. The photocatalytic activities of the synthesized nanostructures were evaluated from monitoring the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye solution under UV/sunlight exposure. The experimental results showed that stand-alone GO/rGO nanostructures have significant intrinsic photocatalytic character to replace other toxic semiconductor photocatalysts. The photocatalytic character of bare GO/rGO nanomaterials are attributed to existence of finite band gap tuned by oxygen containing functionalities on their aromatic rings.