Bismuth porphyrin anchored reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites as a fascinating photocatalyst for rhodamine B dye degradation

Abstract

Herein, two porphyrins with bismuth metal incorporated in the porphyrinic core were synthesized having peripheral carboxyl and hydroxyl functional groups. The successful synthesis of free base porphyrin and their bismuth-integrated metalloporphyrins was identified using ¹H NMR spectroscopy, UV-visible and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR). Further, these bismuth porphyrins complexes were doped with thermally reduced graphene oxide (TRGO) via simple solvothermal techniques. The intrinsic characteristics of prepared metalloporphyrins-based reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites were examined by using various spectroscopic techniques like, photo-physical properties (UV-Visible spectroscopy and Fluorescence spectroscopy), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), powdered X-ray diffraction (P-XRD) patterns, FE-SEM and EDX analysis. At last, the photocatalytic properties of nanocomposites were demonstrated by photocatalytic degradation of industrial pollutant rhodamine B (Rh-b) on irradiation of visible light. The catalytic efficiency of RGO-Bi-P1 and RGO-Bi-P2 came out to be 94.58% and 93.26%, respectively.