Abstract
ABSTRACTHerein we report the first in situ hydrothermal-assisted synthesis of a MoO3/Fe2O3/rGO ternary nanocomposite. The composite was prepared with various amounts of rGO loaded (1%, 3%, 5%, 7% and 10%), which were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectrophotometer, transmission electron microscopy, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Raman, Photoluminescence and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis to study the structural, morphological and optical properties. FESEM micrographs reveal a regularly uniform belt-type structure in which MoO3 with relatively smooth surfaces and Fe2O3 were agglomerated, which led to complete dispersion with the rGO and formed ternary nanocomposites, MoO3/Fe2O3/rGO. The elemental composition of the ternary nanocomposite (Mo, Fe, O and C) was determined from EDX. XRD results show the average crystallite size to be 22.3 nm for the ternary nanocomposite and about the same for the pure phase formation. The synthesized samples were examined for degradation of a model dye, methylene blue (MB) under visible light illumination. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of as-synthesized materials was determined by measuring the absorption spectra of MB, and the results showed that MoO3/Fe2O3/rGO-5% ternary nanocomposite exhibited higher MB photodegradation efficiency (99.47%) under visible light illumination than other four rGO-loaded ternary nanocomposites, MoO3/Fe2O3 binary composite, Fe2O3 and MoO3.
Highlights
Scarcity of water has become a severe problem in recent years due to industrialization and urbanization
No other diffraction peaks were observed in this pattern, indicating that the pure phase occurred during the synthesis process
The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectrum of the MoO3/ Fe2O3/rGO-5% ternary nanocomposite reveals that the C = O and O-H group intensities decrease, indicating the removal of oxygen-containing groups through use of the synthesis method and a highintensity peak observed at 1555.6 cm−1 for the C = C bond, results indicating that graphene oxide (GO) has been reduced to rGO via the hydrothermal process
Summary
Scarcity of water has become a severe problem in recent years due to industrialization and urbanization. The meta-stable β-MoO3 and h-MoO3 have been investigated intensively compared with thermodynamically stable α-MoO3 due to their excellent physicochemical properties [16] They show great potential for applications in electrochromic and photochromic devices, sensors, catalysts, lubricants, display materials, organic solar cells and cathode electrodes for lithium batteries [17,18,19]. Graphene and graphene oxide (GO) are additional excellent new entrants into the photocatalysis field, which can support the nanocomposite in attaining effective degradation as it scavenges and shuttles electrons due to its electrical [23], mechanical [24] and thermal properties [25]; the recombination issue can be diminished significantly. We discuss the synthesis of MoO3/Fe2O3/ rGO ternary composite for effective photocatalytic degradation of a model dye, methylene blue (MB), under visible light illumination
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