Nitrogen doped graphene oxide modified WSe<inf>2</inf>nanorods for visible light photocatalysis

• Key Words:Selenium compounds;Aromatic compounds - Complexation - Doping (additives) - Graphene - Graphene oxide - High resolution transmission electron microscopy - Hydrothermal synthesis - Irradiation - Light - Nanorods - Photocatalysis - Photocatalysts - Photodegradation - Rate constants - Reusability - Scanning electron microscopy - Solutions - Spectrometers - Transmission electron microscopy;Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy - Energy dispersive spectrometers - Methylene Blue - Photo catalytic degradation - Photocatalytic activities - Visible-light irradiation - Visible-light photocatalysis - WSe2
• Abstract:Nitrogen doped graphene oxide (NG) modified WSe<inf>2</inf>nanorod composites (WSe<inf>2</inf>/NG) were prepared by a hydrothermal synthesis route. The synthesized samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV&ndash;vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy(DRS) and elemental analysis. Using methylene blue (MB) as a target organic dye, WSe<inf>2</inf>/NG nanocomposites exhibited significant enhancement in photocatalytic degradation of MB under visible light irradiation compared with WSe<inf>2</inf>. That was mainly attributed to the strong adsorption of MB, excellent electrical conductivity and charge separation features of the NG, leading to effectively restrained electron-hole pair recombination of WSe<inf>2</inf>nanorods. Among the hybrid photocatalysts, WSe<inf>2</inf>/50NG (50 wt% of NG) exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity with a rate constant of 0.0572 min^&minus;1for the degradation of the MB in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation, and the removal efficiency reached 99.3% which was 2.4 times higher than that of WSe<inf>2</inf>. In addition, WSe<inf>2</inf>/NG also showed higher stability and good reusability.<br/> &copy; 2018 Elsevier B.V.
• Volume:750
• Translation or Not:no