Green and Facile Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide-Silver Nanocomposite as a Visible Light Plasmonic Photocatalyst

Abstract

In this research, reduced graphene oxide-silver nanocomposites (RGO-Ag NCs) was synthesized by a green and easy method. In this direction, jujube extract was used as a reducing and stabilizer of nanocomposites in an aqueous environment without chemical reducing and special complexity. Reduced graphene oxide was used as a support because of its high surface area, chemical stability, and good conductivity. This RGO-Ag NCs is characterized by conventional methods such as Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray Diffraction Pattern (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM), X-ray Energy Diffraction Spectroscopy (EDS), Visible-Ultraviolet spectroscopy (UV-Vis) and Raman spectroscopy. The RGO-Ag NCs was used as a visible light plasmonic photocatalyst in the degradation of Rhodamine B dye in aqueous solution. Also, factors affecting photocatalytic degradation such as Rhodamine B dye concentration, amount of RGO-Ag NCs and initial pH of the solution were investigated. The results showed that the degradation rate of 100.0 mL of 1 ppm rhodamine B solution by 0.020 g of RGO-Ag NCs at pH = 6 within 45 minutes under visible light irradiation was 91.34%. It was also found that the rate of dye degradation follows pseudo-first-order.