Effect of Graphene in Enhancing the Photo Catalytic Activity of Zirconium Oxide

Graphene, have two-dimensional structure with high conductivity, extremely high specific surface area and superior electron mobility etc. It has been regarded as an important synthesis material for various composite materials used in many applications. Especially, graphene-based semiconductor photo catalysts have attracted extensive attention because of their usefulness in environmental applications such as air cleanup, water disinfection, hazardous waste remediation, and water purification. The present study involves the photo catalytic degradation of methyl orange by photo catalytic process using different concentrations of ZrO2/graphene synthesized at different annealing temperature. A series of zirconium oxide (ZrO2, zirconia) and graphene (Gr) composites with different contents of Gr (5.7, 7.3, 8.3 %) in the composite were synthesized using zirconium oxychloride (ZrOCl2·8H2O) and graphene oxide as the starting materials. The photocatalytic activities of the synthesized composites were measured for the degradation of methyl orange dye with UV spectroscopy. The rate of decolorization was recorded with respect to the change in intensity of absorption peaks for methyl orange. The absorption peaks, diminished and finally disappeared during reaction, indicating that the dye had been degraded. The photocatalytic activity is strongly affected by the concentration of graphene in the ZrO2. The synthesized ZrO2/graphene photocatalysts are characterized by X-ray diffraction, TGA, Raman spectroscopy and UV–Visible spectroscopy. Finally, it has been concluded that graphene when employed as catalytic support for ZrO2 boost its photo catalytic efficiency