Highly efficient catalytic reductive degradation of Rhodamine-B over Palladium-reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite

Herein, we report highly catalytic reductive degradation of xanthene based dye, Rhodamine B (RhB) over Palladium-reduced graphene oxide (Pd-rGO) nanocomposites. In presence of minimum catalytic amount (viz. 0.025 mg of Pd-rGO) employed for the reduction of RhB, the reduction completes in less than 30 s with an apparent rate constant (k(app)) of 63.83 x 10(-3) s(-1) and highest ever to be reported catalytic factor/normalized rate constant (k(nor)) of 2.6 x 10(-3) s(-1)g(-1). The results were compared with catalytic performance of Silver-reduced graphene oxide (Ag-rGO) and the k(app) was observed to follow the order: k(Pd-rGO) >> k(Ag-rGO) > k(Uncat).