RGO-supported β-SiC nanoparticles by a facile solvothermal route and their enhanced adsorption and photocatalytic activity

• DOI: 10.1016/j.matlet.2014.06.116
• Publication Date: 2014-06-27T10:02:11Z
• Authors: S. Lin; X.S. Zhao; Y.F. Li; K. Huang; R.X. Jia; C. Liang; X. Xu; Y.F. Zhou; H. Wang; D.Y. Fan; H.J. Yang; R. Zhang; Y.G. Wang; M. Lei
• Keywords: Methylene blue

Abstract β-SiC nanoparticles (NPs) were anchored onto the surface of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) by a facile solvothermal method. The characterization results of the novel RGO–SiC composites indicate an effective chemical interaction between the RGO sheets and β-SiC NPs. Moreover, methylene blue (MB) dye was employed as a model pollutant to evaluate the adsorption and photocatalytic ability of the composites. It is found that the content of RGO sheets can significantly tune the adsorption and photocatalytic activity of various composites with an optimal value of 3 wt%. The enhancement of photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the synergistic effect of the accelerated separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs, and the enhanced absorption ability for dyes is mainly due to the RGO sheets which work as an excellent photocatalyst supporter and offer electrons channel to accept and transfer the photogenerated carriers from excited β-SiC NPs.