The effects of interfacial contact on the properties of α-Fe2O3@rGO nanocomposite and their enhanced solar light photocatalysis

In this research, the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles are decorated on the thermally reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites through a facilitated sonication method. Further, effective characterization techniques are used to conduct a comprehensive examination of the physiochemical properties of the prepared nanocomposites. The contribution of iron oxide diffraction patterns in the rGO structure was examined by the XRD structural analysis. The existence of Fe–O molecular vibrations in rGO and then some vibrational shift was also observed in the FT-IR analysis and the evaluated nanocomposites bandgap was decreased towards the 2.4eV range. The nanocomposite heterojunction extents visible light-harvesting capabilities by influencing a bandgap with interfacial sub-energy levels, and photo-generated charge carriers' recombination is restrained by rGO's charge sink property. The beneficial synergistic impact improves the electron transportation, motility, and ultimate redox potential which significantly controlled nanocomposite catalytic features. The lowered recombination chance of nanocomposites exhibits an enhancement in photocatalytic activity towards Rhodamine-B, with roughly 99% of dye compounds degraded and good reusability.