Catalytic degradation of organic dye using reduced graphene oxide-polyoxometalate nanocomposite

Silicotungstic acid (SiW) decorated reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposite (rGO-SiW) has been prepared and evaluated as a heterogeneous nanocatalyst for the degradation reactions of methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB). The structural and morphological properties of rGO-SiW nanocomposite were investigated by various techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Scanning electron microscope (SEM), which revealed the homogeneous and noncovalent anchoring of SiW nanoparticles on rGO sheets. The catalytic activity of rGO-SiW nanocomposite on the degradations of MB and RhB has been monitored using UV-visible absorption spectrometry in the presence of NaBH4 as the reducing agent at room temperature in water. The reduction reactions followed pseudo-first order kinetics and degradation were achieved in 34 min for MB and 81 min for RhB using rGO-SiW as catalysts. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.