Photocatalytic Studies and Antibacterial Activity of Copper thiotungstate/ Reduced Graphine Oxide Nanocomposites (Cu2WS4/rGO)

Abstract

A copper tungsten sulfide (Cu2WS4)-anchored reduced graphene oxide (Cu2WS4/rGO) nanocomposite was prepared using a feasible hydrothermal approach and succssfully employed as photocatalytic material for the degradation of reactive black-5 (RB-5) dye. In the preparation of Cu2WS4 and Cu2WS4/rGO nanocomposite, copper nitrate, tungsten oxalate, metallic sulfur, graphene oxide, sodium hydroxide and sodium borohydride were used as sources of precursors. The prepared materials (Cu2WS4 and Cu2WS4/rGO) were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), DRS-UV, FT-IR and Raman spectral analysis, whereas, the morphology and composition of Cu2WS4 and Cu2WS4/rGO were determined by TEM, FESEM and EDAX analyses. Under visible light conditions with a band gap of 1.8 eV, the degradation capacity of Cu2WS4/rGO nanocomposite towards reactive black-5 dye was enhanced and a dragadation efficiency of 98.2% was achieved at 120 min. The antimicrobial activity results of Cu2WS4/rGO nanocomposite showed that the prepared nanocomposites exhibit improved antibacterial activity 20% (S. aureus) and 10% (P. aeruginosa) growth inhibition