Preparation of highly efficient sunlight driven photodegradation of some organic pollutants and H2 evolution over rGO/FeVO4 nanocomposites

Abstract FeVO4 and rGO/FeVO4 nanocomposites were synthesized by one-step hydrothermal method. The structural and morphological properties of the prepared samples were investigated by XRD, TEM, EDS, XPS, FTIR, Raman, UV–Vis DRS and PL techniques. XRD, XPS and Raman techniques displayed that graphene oxide (GO) was successfully reduced to reduced graphene oxide (rGO) under hydrothermal conditions. Also, the addition of rGO enhanced the visible light absorption, oxygen vacancies, phase transformation of FeVO4 from triclinic to monoclinic phase at high amount of rGO and reduced the band gap energy of FeVO4. The photoactivity of the synthesis catalysts was investigated for the photodegradation of Malachite green, phenol, Methylene blue and Rhodamine B under natural sunlight. Also, the catalysts were applied in H2 evolution from water splitting. The results showed that, the rGO amount was proven to be a crucial factor affecting the structural properties and photocatalytic performance of FeVO4. The mineralization (TOC), photodegradation mechanism and photocatalytic reaction kinetics were discussed.