Facile Synthesis of Gd2O3/rGO Nanocomposite: Optical, Thermal, Morphological, Structural, and Catalytic Studies

Modified Hummers' method was employed for the synthesis of graphene oxide, which was used as a precursor for the synthesis of reduced graphene oxide by using chemical reduction method. Sol-gel method was applied for the synthesis of gadolinium oxide and gadolinium oxide/reduced graphene oxide (Gd2O3/rGO) nanocomposite in the presence of dioctyl sulfosuccinate sodium salt. The prepared material was characterized by using UV-Visible spectroscopy, FTIR, TGA, SEM, and XRD. UV-Visible spectroscopy was used to find the band gap, which was found 4.6 eV for Gd2O3/rGO nanocomposite. FTIR helps in identifying the functional groups. TGA was used to determine thermal stability, kinetic and thermodynamic parameters. Crystallite size of Gd2O3/rGO nanocomposite was determined as 4.38 nm using XRD data. SEM was used to study morphology of prepared material, while degradation efficiency of nanocomposite was checked against methylene blue dye. Gadolinium oxide showed only 19.3% photocatalytic activity in 75 min. Gadolinium oxide/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite displayed higher degradation efficiency (70% in 75 min) as compared with pure gadolinium oxide against methylene blue.