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Graphene nanohybrids for enhanced catalytic activity and large surface area

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Abstract

Nanohybrids containing graphene and bismuth ferrite have been actively employed as efficient photo-catalysts these days owing to the low rate of charge carrier’s (e−-h+) recombination, moderate surface area with a suitable range of band-gaps. We have synthesized nanohybrids of graphene oxide (GO) and doped BiFe03 using a co-precipitation method and the doping elements were lanthanum and manganese, hence called BLFMO/GO nanohybrids. The surface area of BLFMO [La = 15% increased from 6.8 m2/g (for pure) to 62.68 m2/g (in nanohybrid)]. Also, the bandgap of the BLFMO/GO nanohybrid reduced significantly up to 1.75 eV. The resulting BLFMO/GO nanohybrid represents significantly higher catalytic activity (96% in 30 min) than the pure BiFe03 (30% in 30 min).

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Acknowledgment

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan funded the research activity under the Project #39/HEC/R&D/PAKUS/2017/783 and 6040/Federal/NRPU/R&D/HEC/2016 to carry out part of the research work within Pakistan. This work was also funded by benevolent support of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Pakistan–U.S. Science & Technology Cooperation Program grant. The essence does not inevitably express the perspectives of the US Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, School of Natural Sciences (SNS), National University of Science & Technology (NUST), Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan

    Sabeen Fatima, Daniyal Younas & Syed Rizwan

  2. Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Advanced Thin Films and Applications, College of Physics and Energy, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    S. Irfan Ali

  3. College of Materials Engineering, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China

    Amjad Islam

  4. Microelectronics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, 78758, USA

    Deji Akinwande

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  1. Sabeen Fatima
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Correspondence to Syed Rizwan.

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Fatima, S., Irfan Ali, S., Younas, D. et al. Graphene nanohybrids for enhanced catalytic activity and large surface area. MRS Communications 9, 27–36 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.194

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