Microspheres of graphene oxide coupled to N doped Bi2O2CO3 for visible light photocatalysis
Abstract Hierarchical microspheres of a graphene oxide (GO) coupled to N doped (BiO) 2 CO 3 composite (N BOC GO) was synthesized by a simple hydrothermal approach. The N BOC GO composite gave enhancement in photocatalytic activity compared to the pure BOC and N BOC samples. With 1.0 wt% GO, 62% NO removal was obtained with N BOC GO. The factors enhancing the photocatalytic performance were the high electron withdrawing ability and high conductivity of GO and improved visible light harvesting ability of N BOC GO with a 3D hierarchical architecture due to the surface scattering and reflecting (SSR) effect. An effective charge transfer from N BOC to GO was demonstrated by the much weakened photoluminescene intensity of the N BOC GO composite. This work highlights the potential application of GO based photocatalysts in air purification.