Facile Synthesis of High Lateral Graphene Oxide Sheets for Visible Light-driven Photocatalytic Degradation of Industrial Dyes towards Water Treatment Applications

Abstract In this work, a facile synthesis of multilayer graphene oxide (GO) sheets having a two-dimensional structure has been realized using the modified Hummers and Offeman method. The as-synthesized GO was analyzed by UV-visible, FTIR, Powder X-ray Diffraction (PXRD), HRTEM, FESEM, and EDX for optical, chemical, structural, morphological, topographical, and elemental analysis respectively. The results reveal that GO shows an absorption band at 232 nm. The FTIR spectrum shows the oxygen-rich groups in GO, and PXRD confirms the major GO peak at 10.35° along with few minor peaks. HRTEM and FESEM confirm the two-dimensional GO sheets along with high lateral dimensions. The as-synthesized GO with a number of available functional groups and high lateral dimension was efficiently used for the photocatalytic degradation of Coralline Red BS (CR BS) and Reactive Blue 81 (RB81) dyes. This study reveals that, compared to graphene, pristine GO sheets significantly influence the degradation of CR BS and RB81 dyes. This work significantly contributes to the use of pristine GO for the removal of toxic dyes from wastewater. The evaluation of the dye degradation rate and GO reusability along with the kinetic studies is explained in detail.