PREPARATION AND PHOTOCATALYTIC ACTIVITY OF NOVEL PPy/GO/BiVO4 NANOCOMPOSITES

A new type of poly pyrrole/graphene oxide/bismuth vanadate (PPy/GO/BiVO 4 ) ternary nanocomposite with excellent visible light-driven photocatalytic degradation performance was prepared by the traditional hydrothermal method. The photocatalyst samples were characterized and analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS). Under visible light irradiation, the photocatalytic activity of the samples in the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB), which was used to simulate organic dye pollutants in the real natural environment, was detected. The experimental results demonstrated that the photocatalytic degradation performance of PPy/GO/BiVO 4 was reinforced after loading GO and PPy. Among all the photocatalyst samples with different PPy content, the PPy/GO/BiVO 4 nanocomposite containing 5% PPy showed the highest photocatalytic activity. The stability test suggested that the nanocomposite remained stable even after four cycles of photocatalytic degradation of RhB. As a novel type of visible light-driven photocatalyst, PPy/GO/BiVO 4 can be utilized to degrade pollutants in waste water.