title: One-step in situ synthesis of CeO₂ nanoparticles grown on reduced graphene oxide as an excellent fluorescent and photocatalyst material under sunlight irradiation.
abstract: CeO2 nanoparticles (NPs) with average particle size of ∼17 nm were grown on graphene sheets by simply mixing cerium chloride as the Ce precursor with graphene oxide (GO) in distilled water and the simultaneous reduction of GO to reduced graphene oxide (rGO), followed by a one-step hydrothermal treatment at 150 °C. A unique blue to green tuneable luminescence was observed as a function of the excitation wavelength. With this method, significant applications of rGO-CeO2 nanocomposites in many optical devices could be realized. The photocatalytic activity of the as-synthesized CeO2 and rGO-CeO2 nanocomposite was investigated by monitoring the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye under direct sunlight irradiation. The rGO-CeO2 nanocomposite exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity compared to CeO2 NPs by degrading 90% of the MB dye in 10 min irradiation under sunlight. This property of rGO-CeO2 nanocomposites was ascribed to the significant suppression of the recombination rate of photo-generated electron-hole pairs due to charge transfer between rGO sheets and CeO2 NPs and the smaller optical band-gap in the rGO-CeO2 nanocomposite.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, Allahabad 211004, India. animesh@mnnit.ac.in animesh198@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Sachin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, Allahabad 211004, India. animesh@mnnit.ac.in animesh198@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Animesh K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Ojha
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, 28759 Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Donfack
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Patrice
authors.affiliation: Solid State Physics Laboratory, Timarpur, Delhi-110054, India.
authors.forename: Brajesh S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Yadav
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, 28759 Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Arnulf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Materny