One-pot synthesis of gold nanoparticle/molybdenum cluster/graphene oxide nanocomposite and its photocatalytic activity

The paper reports on a facile one-pot synthesis of a tri-component gold nanoparticle/molybdenum cluster/graphene oxide (AuNPs@Mo–GO) nanohybrid composite. The synthetic methodology consists on direct UV irradiation of an aqueous solution containing graphene oxide (GO), Na2[Mo6Br8(N3)6], HAuCl4·3H2O and isopropanol at room temperature in air using a UV fiber lamp. The composite material exhibits very high photocatalytic activity for the degradation of rhodamine B under visible light irradation. The resulting nanohybrid material was characterized using Raman spectroscopy, UV–vis spectrometry, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

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► A tri-component Au nanoparticles/molybdenum cluster/GO nanohybrid is synthesized.
► The photocatalytic activity of the composite was studied under visible irradiation.
► The nanocomposite shows a high performance for the photodegradation of RhB.