Hydrothermal assisted decoration of NiS2 and CoS nanoparticles on the reduced graphene oxide nanosheets for sunlight driven photocatalytic degradation of azo dye: Effect of background electrolyte and surface charge.

The semiconductor NiS2 nanoparticles with an average size of 10 ± 0.317 nm were successfully deposited on the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets by simple hydrothermal method. The synthesized nanocomposite was characterized by various instrumental techniques like XRD, FTIR, FESEM, EDX, HRTEM, fluorescence spectrophotometer analysis. In this study we mainly focus on the determination of the surface potential values of NiS2-rGO and CoS-rGO nanocomposite under different experimental conditions and evaluated the photodegradation efficiency towards azo dye Congo Red (CR) molecule under natural sunlight irradiation. We found that the surface charge (zeta potential) of the both nanocomposite materials in presence of different inorganic ions salt solutions like NaCl, NaNO3, Na2SO4, MgCl2, CaCl2 etc. is varied based on the polarizability of the ions as well as pH of the suspension. Different inorganic ions present in the catalyst suspension can alter the surface charge of the catalyst by forming a double layer around the molecule and thus change the electrostatic interaction between the dye molecule and the catalyst surface which change the degradation efficiency of the photocatalyst towards CR molecule. The photocatalytic efficiency of NiS2-rGO and CoS-rGO nanocomposite towards CR degradation was found to be 97.03% and 88.03% in 40 min, respectively under same experimental condition whereas NiS2 and CoS nanoparticles without support exhibited photodegradation efficiency 57.89% and 50.52%, respectively. The observed improved photocatalytic activity of the metal sulfide-rGO nanocomposite results the presence of synergistic effect between the metal sulfide nanoparticles and the rGO sheets of the photocatalysts which inhibits the recombination rate of photogenerated electrons and holes. The mechanism of the degradation process was investigated by photoluminescence study in presence of terephthalic acid and also quenching experiment in presence of isopropanol and benzoquinone. The photocatalyst was characterized after degradation process and found that the crystallinity and the morphology of the nanocomposite remained unchanged. The ion-chromatography experiment confirms the formation of non-toxic products after degradation. The present study focuses on the importance of the use of metal sulphide-rGO nanocomposite towards environment remediation process and study of the influence of inorganic salts on the surface charge of the photocatalyst as well as on the degradation process.