Synthesis of CeO2 Coupling rGO Material Oriented to Rhodamine B Degradation under Optical Irradiation

Abstract

In the present work, CeO2 with different loading were embedded  on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) by a simple one-pot hydrothermal method. The synthesized samples were characterized using XRD, EDX mapping, FESEM and UV-Vis DRS techniques. The photocatalytic activity of the as-synthesized CeO2, rGO, and 0,5% (1,5% and 5,0% wt )CeO2/rGO was studied by monitoring the degradation of Rhodamine B dye (denotes RhB) under xenon light irradiation. The analyses show that CeO2 particles were evenly dispersed on rGO and the optical properties of the xCeO2/Rgo (x = 0,5; 1,5; and 5,0%wt)/rGO material were significantly enhanced due to the interaction between CeO2 anf rGO. The effects of CeO2 loading, initial RhB concentration and pH were thoroughly investigated.  Under the irradiation, the RhB degradation reached 100% over 1.5%CeO2/rGO. tThe high performance of the synthesized composites was attributed to the significant suppression of the recombination rate of photo-generated electron - hole pairs due to charge transfer between rGO sheets and CeO2 particles and the smaller optical band-gap in the CeO2/rGO nanocomposite.