Enhancing photocatalytic activity through 2D heterostructured P/MnO2/r-GO nanocomposites: a study on synthesis, structure, and optical properties

In this study, a 2D P/MnO2/r-GO nanosheet was successfully synthesized by hydrothermal technique and its composite with r-GO was made for the first time using Hummer’s method. Furthermore, the structural, morphological, electrical, optical, and photocatalytic characteristics of the material were investigated. The results showed that the formation of heterojunction between sheets such as P/MnO2 and r-GO reduced the optical band gap energy, causing light absorption to move to the visible region. Dye degradation experiments with sunlight irradiation were used to investigate photocatalytic performance. The degrading efficiency of the P/MnO2/r-GO composite for MO, Rh B, and MB degradation was found to be 97.32%, 95.45, and 96.69%, respectively, which is greater than that of the pure MnO2. In addition, the optimum TOC removal within 120 min approached 59.32 and 82.85% for MnO2 and PMG 5 for MO dye, respectively. Furthermore, a sheet-like P/MnO2/r-GO composite was effectively photodegraded five times without a significant change in activity or crystalline characteristics.