Facile fabrication of reduced graphene oxide/CuI/PANI nanocomposites with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

Abstract

Novel reduced graphene oxide/CuI/polyaniline (rGO/CuI/PANI) heterostructure nanocomposites have been successfully synthesized by a simple self-assembly approach for the first time. Microstructure studies show the CuI nanoparticles and PANI nanorods evenly disperse on the surface of rGO. The results of photocatalytic experiments demonstrate that the rGO/CuI/PANI nanocomposites exhibit significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity for the degradation of organic pollutants and water splitting H₂ production under visible light irradiation. It could be attributed to synergistic effects originating from the rGO/CuI/PANI heterostructures. The CuI/PANI heterostructures facilitate the transformation of electrons, which are excited by light irradiation in the conduction band of PANI. The rGO should be an electron transfer channel, which can readily reduce the recombination probability of photogenerated electron/hole pairs and enhance the charge separation efficiency, leading to higher photocatalytic performance and effectively inhibited photo-corrosion. Moreover, rGO/CuI/PANI composites show remarkable stability and cyclic performance. The present work provides new insights into the synthesis of GO-based heterostructures, and the developed nanocomposites would have potential applications in the energy and environmental related fields.