Development of a CeTe/rGO Nanosized Composite for Photoreduction of Heavy Metal in the Aquatic Environment

Industrial effluents contain the hazardous metal hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)], which is potentially lethal to all organisms in the environment. In this work, we developed a transition metal chalcogenide (TMC)-based reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposite (CeTe/rGO) via the hydrothermal method for the photoreduction of chromium(VI) metal into less hazardous Cr(III). Various analytical tools including x-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), Brunauer--Emmett-Teller (BET) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis were employed for determining characteristics of the CeTe/rGO photocatalyst. The photocatalytic efficiency of transition metal chalcogenide-based rGO nanocomposite was measured under UV-Vis light with a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The photocatalytic efficiency of CeTe (76.54%) and rGO (81.94%) is smaller than that of the CeTe/rGO (96.50%) due to the larger surface area of the rGO. Scavengers analysis revealed that superoxide anion, hydroxyl radical and holes play a great role in the photocatalysis process. Our results suggest that the CeTe/rGO nanocomposites can potentially be used to reduce the toxic material present in the environment.