Abstract
The nanocomposite materials of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/graphene oxide (PEDOT/GO), poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/MnO2 (PEDOT/MnO2), and poly(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/graphene oxide/MnO2 (PEDOT/GO/MnO2) were successfully prepared by facile and template-free solution method. The structure and morphology of nanonanocomposites were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), ultraviolet–visible absorption spectra (UV–vis), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), respectively. The catalytic activities of nanocomposites were investigated through the degradation processes of methylene blue (MB) solution under dark, UV light, and nature sunlight irradiation, respectively. The results displayed that nanocomposites were successfully synthesized, and PEDOT/GO had higher conjugation length and doped degree than pure PEDOT. However, the introduction of MnO2 could lead to the reduction of conjugation length and doped degree in PEDOT/MnO2 and PEDOT/GO/MnO2 nanocomposites. The field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) analysis also showed that both MnO2 and GO had some effect on the morphology of nanocomposites. The catalytic activities of pure PEDOT and nanocomposites were in the order of PEDOT/GO/MnO2 > PEDOT/MnO2 > PEDOT/GO > pure PEDOT. Besides, the catalytic results also showed that the highest degradation efficiency of MB after 7 h occurred in the PEDOT/GO/MnO2 composite in three irradiation.
Highlights
Dyes, pigments, and their causative compounds are difficult for industrialization since they are highly carcinogenic and undesirable in water as reported
The band of Mn − O and Mn − O − Mn vibrations at 510 cm−1 is observed in the case of PEDOT/MnO2 and PEDOT/graphene oxide (GO)/MnO2 nanocomposites, which supports that the presence of MnO2 in nanocomposites [23]
The results displayed that both GO and MnO2 had some effect on the morphology of nanocomposites
Summary
Pigments, and their causative compounds are difficult for industrialization since they are highly carcinogenic and undesirable in water as reported. Many chemical methods have been reported for the formation of conducting polymer/MnO2 composites. Monomers are always oxidized to obtain the conducting polymer, and KMnO4 is reduced to give MnO2. It has been recently revealed that conducting polymers themselves show redox activity toward KMnO4, where KMnO4 is always reduced to MnO2 [15]. The conjugation of GO with semiconductor solid particles results in catalysts with improved charge separation, reduced recombination of the photogenerated electron–hole pairs, increased specific surface area, and an adequate quantity of adsorption sites, which could lead to the enhancement of degradation efficiency of wastewater [16,17,18,19]. On account of the abovementioned advantages, the reasonable combination of PEDOT, GO, and MnO2 would produce some novel composites with excellent catalytic performance
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