Solar light triggered catalytic performance of graphene-CuO nanocomposite for waste water treatment

In this work, the effect of a new nanocomposite material on the photodegradation of methylene blue is demonstrated. The nanocomposite is synthesized by the combination of cupric oxide (CuO) with graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) and characterized by XRD, FE-SEM, FTIR, Raman, and UV-vis spectroscopy. Interestingly, the inclusion of GNPs with CuO enhances the photocatalytic properties of nanocomposite without tweaking inherent properties such as the conductive nature of GNPs. Within 80 min of exposure to the solar light, a 99.44% photodegradation of methylene blue is achieved, which is much better than using CuO alone, for which the degradation is only 75%. The much-improved photocatalytic performance of the nanocomposite is a consequence of low bandgap energy of GCuO as well as the conducting nature of GNPs, that causes fast photo excitation of electrons and lengthens the recombination lifetime of charge carriers respectively.