Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance of the Graphene-V2O5 Nanocomposite in the Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye under Direct Sunlight

Mahalingam Shanmugam; Ali Alsalme; Abdulaziz Alghamdi; Ramasamy Jayavel

doi:10.1021/acsami.5b02715

Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance of the Graphene-V2O5 Nanocomposite in the Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye under Direct Sunlight

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2015 Jul 15;7(27):14905-11. doi: 10.1021/acsami.5b02715. Epub 2015 Jul 2.

Authors

Mahalingam Shanmugam¹, Ali Alsalme², Abdulaziz Alghamdi², Ramasamy Jayavel¹

Affiliations

¹ †Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Anna University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600 025, India.
² ‡Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, Riyadh Province 11451, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 26098875
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b02715

Abstract

A simple and efficient solution mixing method has been developed for the synthesis of the G-V2O5 nanocomposite. By this method, one-dimensional V2O5 rods are decorated onto the two-dimensional graphene sheets. The synthesized nanocomposites are characterized by XRD, SEM with elemental mapping, TEM, FT-IR, Raman, BET, and XPS analyses. The photocatalytic activity of the G-V2O5 nanocomposite studied with methylene blue dye shows strong degradation efficiency with direct sunlight irradiation compared to UV and visible light sources. The mechanism of methylene blue dye degradation by the G-V2O5 nanocomposite has been elucidated through the kinetics of the degradation process by calculating the rate constant and half-life time of the degradation process.

Keywords: V2O5; graphene; nanocomposite; photocatalytic MB dye degradation; simple solution mixing; sunlight irradiation.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't