Fabrication of Reduced Graphene Oxide-Silver/Polyvinyl Alcohol Nanocomposite Film for Reduction of 4-Nitrophenol and Methyl Orange Dye

Abstract

The development of ingenious technologies for the purification of wastewater containing highly toxic organic compounds is of high importance in the current research. The application of noble metal nanocatalysts in the presence of sodium borohydride (NaBH4) for the removal of these toxic compounds through chemical reduction method have become an accepted approach in the recent years. The present work reports on the development of a convenient approach to fabricate free standing, robust, and flexible reduced graphene oxide - silver/polyvinyl alcohol (rGO−Ag/PVA) nanocomposite film. The morphological and structural characterizations of the as developed film have been carried out using SEM, TEM, EDAX, Raman, BET, and TGA. The performance of as developed rGO−Ag/PVA nanocomposite film is tested as heterogeneous catalyst in the reduction reaction of 4-Nitrophenol and reduction of Methyl Orange dye. The nanocomposite film-based catalyst exhibited excellent catalytic performances as well as excellent stability in the reduction of toxic organic compounds in wastewater. © 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH