A tunable CuDyO4 affixed exfoliated S-doped graphene oxide s-scheme heterojunction sheet photocatalytic degradation towards dye from aqueous solution

In this work, visible light-responsive s-scheme heterojunction SGOxCu1-xDyO4 was felicitously fabricated by the in-situ hydrothermal method. These were subsequently investigated for the photocatalytic degradation of an aqueous solution of Congo red (CR) dye molecules in the presence of visible light illumination. The morphology and elemental analysis of the composite were carried out by XRD, SEM and EDS. The FTIR spectra indicated the formation of composites for the hosts SGOxCu1-xDyO4. Similarly, both the PL spectroscopy and UV band gap analysis analysis were employed to investigate the effective charge separation in the composites. Narrowing down of band gap from 3.2 eV of bare CuDyO4 to 2.7 eV for SGO0.25xCu1-xDyO4 led to the production of photoinduced electrons, holes and the prevention of reunion of these charges. The optimal photocatalyst SGO0.25xCu1-xDyO4 demonstrated 93% degradation efficiency against CR after 60 min of exposure to visible light radiations. When compared with CuDyO4, SGOxCu1-xDyO4 exhibited greatly enhanced dye degradation efficiency. The recyclability test indicated that SGOxCu1-xDyO4 is a highly stable photocatalyst with four successive displaying degradation efficiency of 87%, 84% 78% and 71%, respectively. Owning to high photocatalytic efficiency and the potential to be used for multiple cycles SGO0.25xCu1-xDyO4 may be recommended for the practical elimination of CR dye from wastewater.