The decoration of metal oxide nanoparticles on reduced graphene oxide (RGO) has sparked research interest in scientific community as they holds promise for various applications such as photocatalysis, chemical sensors and supercapacitors etc [1-3]. In present work, CeO2 nanoparticles were decorated on RGO by in-situ reduction of different concentration of graphene oxide (GO) in the presence of cerium nitrate and hydrazine hydrate through hydrothermal method. The as-synthesized RGO/CeO2 nanocomposites with 0.0, 2.0 and 4.0 wt. % of GO were labelled as CeO2, RG2 and RG4, respectively. All the samples were characterized by x- ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The XRD patterns and Raman Spectra confirmed the cubic fluorite structure for all the samples. A blue shift for F2g mode of CeO2 was observed in Raman spectra of RGO/CeO2 nanocomposites as compared to pure CeO2. TEM micrographs showed that CeO2 nanoparticles were decorated uniformly on the RGO sheets. The size of CeO2 nanoparticles formed in the presence of GO were larger as compared to pure CeO2. DRS spectra showed significant bandgap narrowing for nanocomposites. Photoluminescence quenching was also observed for nanocomposites. Further, we investigated the photocatalytic performance of nanocomposites for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and found that optimum amount of GO was crucial for enhancing the photocatalytic performance of nanocomposites.
References
1. Anand, K., Singh, O., Singh, M.P., Kaur, J. and Singh, R.C., Sens. Actuators, B. 195, 409–415(2014)
2. Kaur, J., Anand, K., Anand, K., Thangaraj, R., Singh, R.C., Indian J Phys,10 1183–1194 (2016)
3. M. Srivastava, A.K Das, P. Khanra, M.E. Uddin, N.H. Kim and J.H. Lee, J. Mater. Chem. A 1, 9792-9801 (2013).
