Abstract
Recently, binary metal oxides have been proven to be the most investigated semiconductors due to their high activity for the removal of organic pollutants. In this paper, to improve the photocatalytic efficiency of MgFe2O4, a MgFe2O4/reduced graphene oxide (MFO/rGO) photocatalyst was synthesized by a facile generalized solvothermal method. The morphology, structure, and photocatalytic activities in the degradation of methyl orange (MO) reaction were systematically characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, respectively. The results showed that the MFO/rGO composite exhibited enhanced photocatalytic performance in the photodegradation of MO under visible-light irradiation and reached a maximum degradation rate of 99% within 60 min of irradiation. This excellent photocatalytic performance is attributed to the introduction of rGO in the composite, which can effectively reduce the photoproduction of the electron-hole pair recombination rate. The excellent photocatalytic activity reveals that the MFO/rGO composite photocatalyst is a promising photocatalyst with good visible-light response and has potential applications in the field of water treatment.
Highlights
Environmental pollution has become one of the outstanding social problems
The results indicated that MgFe2O4/reduced graphene oxide (MFO/reduced graphene oxide (rGO)) nanocomposites exhibited much higher photocatalytic performance than the pure MFO
A certain amount (10 ml) of 10 mg ml−1 graphene oxide (GO) suspension was added into the above solution under magnetic stirring for 4 h
Summary
Environmental pollution has become one of the outstanding social problems. Photocatalytic technology has attracted great interest as a promising pathway for solving energy supply and environmental pollution problems [1, 2]. The traditional photocatalysts, typically TiO2 (3.2 eV) or ZnO (3.3 eV), with a wide band gap can only exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity under ultraviolet light irradiation, which significantly limits their practical applications [3,4,5]. As a rising star in the carbon family, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years due to its excellent electronic properties (zero gap semiconductor where the conduction band and the valence band touch each other), outstanding ability as an electron acceptor and transport, chemical stability, and high surface area, which have been used to obtain hybrid materials with superior photocatalytic performance [10]. The mechanism of enhanced photocatalytic activities of MFO/rGO is proposed
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