Tailoring graphene-oxide and reduced-graphene-oxide with NaNO3 and CaCl2 catalysts with enhanced photo-catalytic degradation of methylene blue dye

Mansi Chitkara; Nitin Goyal; Aashish Kumar; Latha Marasamy; Sirajul Haq; Samar A Aldossari; Rajesh Haldhar; M Khalid Hossain

doi:10.1039/d3ra08256c

Tailoring graphene-oxide and reduced-graphene-oxide with NaNO₃ and CaCl₂ catalysts with enhanced photo-catalytic degradation of methylene blue dye

RSC Adv. 2024 Mar 14;14(13):8769-8778. doi: 10.1039/d3ra08256c.

Authors

Mansi Chitkara^{1

2}, Nitin Goyal^{2

3}, Aashish Kumar^{1

2}, Latha Marasamy⁴, Sirajul Haq⁵, Samar A Aldossari⁶, Rajesh Haldhar⁷, M Khalid Hossain⁸

Affiliations

¹ Nanomaterials Research Laboratory, Chitkara University Rajpura 140401 Punjab India aashish.kumar@chitkara.edu.in.
² Chitkara University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chitkara University Rajpura 140401 Punjab India.
³ Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary 2500 University Dr NW T2N 1N4 Calgary Canada.
⁴ Facultad de Química, Materiales-Energía, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro C.P.76010 Mexico.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Muzaffarabad 13100 Pakistan.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University Riyadh 11451 Saudi Arabia.
⁷ School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University Gyeongsan 38541 Republic of Korea rajeshhaldhar.lpu@gmail.com.
⁸ Institute of Electronics, Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission Dhaka 1349 Bangladesh khalid.baec@gmail.com khalid@kyudai.jp.

Abstract

This study employed various experimental techniques to produce graphene oxide (GO) under different conditions, such as the inclusion or exclusion of NaNO₃, and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) with or without the catalyst CaCl₂. The procedure of decreasing RGO was carried out using the reducing agent NaBH₄. Moreover, the prepared mixtures were utilized in the degradation process of methylene blue (MB) dye using photo-catalysis, with exposure to both ultraviolet (UV) light and sunlight. When exposed to UV and sunlight irradiation, WN-GO showed rapid and ecologically friendly breakdown of MB dye in comparison to N-GO. WN-GO exhibited exceptional adsorption capabilities, surpassing other tested materials like N-GO, WN-C-RGO and C-RGO. Although WN-C-RGO has demonstrated satisfactory performance in terms of photo-catalytic degradation, as the concentration-time graph of the MB dye revealed significant degradation, with a reduction of up to 90% and 62.5% under UV light and sunlight exposure, respectively. These results offer insightful information on the potential of graphene-based materials to address other environmental issues, particularly in the areas of water treatment.