Self-assembly of CeO2nanostructures/reduced graphene oxide composite aerogels for efficient photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in water

Jiha Choi; D. Amaranatha Reddy; M. Jahurul Islam; Rory Ma; Tae Kyu Kim

doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2016.07.236

Self-assembly of CeO₂nanostructures/reduced graphene oxide composite aerogels for efficient photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in water

Jiha Choi, D. Amaranatha Reddy, M. Jahurul Islam, Rory Ma, Tae Kyu Kim

Department of Chemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

82 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Reduced graphene oxide aerogels (RGAs) are excellent candidates for water remediation due to their lightweight, high surface area and high absorbance rate. Here, we report a simple green synthetic approach for the self-assembly of CeO₂-RGA aerogels using vitamin-C as the reducing agent. The photocatalytic degradation performance of the as-synthesized CeO₂-RGA aerogels was studied as a function of simulated sunlight irradiation, using the organic dye Rhodamine-B (RhB) as a test molecule. The CeO₂/RGA composites displayed highly enhanced photocatalytic activity in comparison to bare CeO₂nanostructures. This enhancement is ascribed to efficient charge transfer from the CeO₂nanostructures to the reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheets due to the high degree of interconnectivity between the RGO and CeO₂nanostructures. In addition, photoluminescence studies strongly support this charge separation mechanism. The microstructures and optical properties of the as-synthesized nanostructures were characterized using HRTEM, XRD, FTIR, XPS and DRS. These results demonstrated that the CeO₂nanostructures are grown on interconnected three-dimensional RGO nanosheets. We believe that the findings of this study provide a versatile pathway to induce self-assembly of reduced graphene sheets with other semiconductor nanostructures in the form of lightweight aerogels for a variety of environmental applications.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	527-536
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Volume	688
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2016.07.236
Publication status	Published - 2016

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grants, funded by the Korean government ( MSIP ) ( 2014R1A4A1001690 ). This work was also supported by the 2016 Post-Doc. Development Program of Pusan National University . This research has been supported by in part by Max Planck POSTECH/KOREA Research Initiative Program [Grant No. 2011-0031558 ] through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning .

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier B.V.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Mechanics of Materials
Mechanical Engineering
Metals and Alloys
Materials Chemistry

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jallcom.2016.07.236

Cite this

@article{a8f8b32e591a4df2aaf11f60d48e0845,

title = "Self-assembly of CeO2nanostructures/reduced graphene oxide composite aerogels for efficient photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in water",

abstract = "Reduced graphene oxide aerogels (RGAs) are excellent candidates for water remediation due to their lightweight, high surface area and high absorbance rate. Here, we report a simple green synthetic approach for the self-assembly of CeO2-RGA aerogels using vitamin-C as the reducing agent. The photocatalytic degradation performance of the as-synthesized CeO2-RGA aerogels was studied as a function of simulated sunlight irradiation, using the organic dye Rhodamine-B (RhB) as a test molecule. The CeO2/RGA composites displayed highly enhanced photocatalytic activity in comparison to bare CeO2nanostructures. This enhancement is ascribed to efficient charge transfer from the CeO2nanostructures to the reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheets due to the high degree of interconnectivity between the RGO and CeO2nanostructures. In addition, photoluminescence studies strongly support this charge separation mechanism. The microstructures and optical properties of the as-synthesized nanostructures were characterized using HRTEM, XRD, FTIR, XPS and DRS. These results demonstrated that the CeO2nanostructures are grown on interconnected three-dimensional RGO nanosheets. We believe that the findings of this study provide a versatile pathway to induce self-assembly of reduced graphene sheets with other semiconductor nanostructures in the form of lightweight aerogels for a variety of environmental applications.",

author = "Jiha Choi and Reddy, {D. Amaranatha} and Islam, {M. Jahurul} and Rory Ma and Kim, {Tae Kyu}",

note = "Funding Information: This work was financially supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grants, funded by the Korean government ( MSIP ) ( 2014R1A4A1001690 ). This work was also supported by the 2016 Post-Doc. Development Program of Pusan National University . This research has been supported by in part by Max Planck POSTECH/KOREA Research Initiative Program [Grant No. 2011-0031558 ] through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning . Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2016 Elsevier B.V.",

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AU - Choi, Jiha

AU - Reddy, D. Amaranatha

AU - Islam, M. Jahurul

AU - Ma, Rory

AU - Kim, Tae Kyu

N1 - Funding Information: This work was financially supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grants, funded by the Korean government ( MSIP ) ( 2014R1A4A1001690 ). This work was also supported by the 2016 Post-Doc. Development Program of Pusan National University . This research has been supported by in part by Max Planck POSTECH/KOREA Research Initiative Program [Grant No. 2011-0031558 ] through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning . Publisher Copyright: © 2016 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - Reduced graphene oxide aerogels (RGAs) are excellent candidates for water remediation due to their lightweight, high surface area and high absorbance rate. Here, we report a simple green synthetic approach for the self-assembly of CeO2-RGA aerogels using vitamin-C as the reducing agent. The photocatalytic degradation performance of the as-synthesized CeO2-RGA aerogels was studied as a function of simulated sunlight irradiation, using the organic dye Rhodamine-B (RhB) as a test molecule. The CeO2/RGA composites displayed highly enhanced photocatalytic activity in comparison to bare CeO2nanostructures. This enhancement is ascribed to efficient charge transfer from the CeO2nanostructures to the reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheets due to the high degree of interconnectivity between the RGO and CeO2nanostructures. In addition, photoluminescence studies strongly support this charge separation mechanism. The microstructures and optical properties of the as-synthesized nanostructures were characterized using HRTEM, XRD, FTIR, XPS and DRS. These results demonstrated that the CeO2nanostructures are grown on interconnected three-dimensional RGO nanosheets. We believe that the findings of this study provide a versatile pathway to induce self-assembly of reduced graphene sheets with other semiconductor nanostructures in the form of lightweight aerogels for a variety of environmental applications.

AB - Reduced graphene oxide aerogels (RGAs) are excellent candidates for water remediation due to their lightweight, high surface area and high absorbance rate. Here, we report a simple green synthetic approach for the self-assembly of CeO2-RGA aerogels using vitamin-C as the reducing agent. The photocatalytic degradation performance of the as-synthesized CeO2-RGA aerogels was studied as a function of simulated sunlight irradiation, using the organic dye Rhodamine-B (RhB) as a test molecule. The CeO2/RGA composites displayed highly enhanced photocatalytic activity in comparison to bare CeO2nanostructures. This enhancement is ascribed to efficient charge transfer from the CeO2nanostructures to the reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheets due to the high degree of interconnectivity between the RGO and CeO2nanostructures. In addition, photoluminescence studies strongly support this charge separation mechanism. The microstructures and optical properties of the as-synthesized nanostructures were characterized using HRTEM, XRD, FTIR, XPS and DRS. These results demonstrated that the CeO2nanostructures are grown on interconnected three-dimensional RGO nanosheets. We believe that the findings of this study provide a versatile pathway to induce self-assembly of reduced graphene sheets with other semiconductor nanostructures in the form of lightweight aerogels for a variety of environmental applications.

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