One step approach towards the green synthesis of silver decorated graphene nanocomposites for the degradation of organic dyes in water

Abstract

Recently the decoration of graphene with metallic nanoparticles by a one pot reduction of graphene oxide (GO) coupled with the synthesis of metallic nanoparticles has gained momentum. Graphene and GO have been proved to exhibit excellent biocompatibility and high antibacterial activity and hence a vast possibility lies in the utilization of GO as an antibacterial reinforcement in biomaterials and exploration of the antiseptic properties as well as the cytotoxicity of GO-containing composites. Moreover GO decorated with metal / metal oxide paves way towards an inevitable role in water purification. The use of graphene oxide as the nano scale substrates for the development of nanocomposites with metal oxides is a novel idea to obtain a hybrid which would exhibit both the properties of GO as a enthralling paper-shape material and the quality of single nano-sized metal particles. The heavy metal ions and pollutants are considered as a major problem in environmental contamination. Hence detection of trace level pollutant has become a hot topic in the present research scenario. Modified graphene oxide nanocomposites prepared using a green approach has the capacity of absorbing pollutant material ions in high efficiency and selectivity. The green synthesized nanocomposites were characterized using FTIR and UV spectroscopy and the consequence of pH and concentration on the preparation of the nanocomposites was evaluated. The efficiency of these nanocomposites towards degradation of organic dyes like methylene blue has been evaluated.