SOLAR LIGHT ACTIVE CeO2/rGO HYBRID PHOTOCATALYST FOR DIRECT VIOLET 51 DEGRADATION

Abstract

A solar active hybrid photocatalyst is synthesized and applied for detoxification and degradation of dye molecules in an aqueous medium. Synthesis of rGO from GO using carica papaya leaf extract and nano-sized CeO 2 is coated over the rGO to make the hybrid photocatalyst. Prepared hybrids evaluated using SEM, XRD, EDX, IR, surface area (BET) and UV-DRS. Synthesized hybrid is used as photocatalyst for the degradation of Direct Violet 51 (DV 51) dye under both UV and solar irradiations. The surface area of the synthesized composite (CeO 2 /rGO-HYBD) is 95 m 2 /g. The Langmuir kinetics for the reaction is also studied. The basic algorithm is used to fit the curves for the LH isotherm; deviations from the experimental values and the reaction order are enumerated for three different hypothetical conditions.