Efficient degradation of picric acid using rGO-MnO₂ hybrid nanocomposite under different light conditions

Abstract Picric acid is a very dangerous environmental pollutant generated from chemical and dye industries due to its high toxicity. Therefore, efforts have been made to develop techniques for the efficient degradation of picric acid. A novel rGO-MnO2 nanocomposite has been synthesized by chemical method for the degradation of picric acid in various light medium. The rGO-MnO2 nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Energy dispersive X-ray (EDAX), Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) and Scanning electron microscope (SEM). The synthesized, pure rGO, MnO2 and rGO-MnO2 nanocomposite catalyst have been studied for the activity of photocatalytic degradation against picric acid under different light sources such as UV light (254,365,390 nm), visible light and sunlight. It is found that rGO-MnO2 has achieved better performance compared to that of pure rGO, MnO2.