Degradation of organic dyes by P25-reduced graphene oxide: influence of inorganic salts and surfactants

Treatment of coloured effluent treatment is a major issue for the textile industry. In this study, catalyst P25-graphene was prepared and applied for degrading dye from an aqueous solution. Three types of dyes were selected to determine the feasibility of the catalyst for the dye degradation, including sulphonic, azoic, and fluorescent dyes. P25-graphene catalyst showed good ability to degrade all selected dyes. The influence of inorganic salts and surfactants on the photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B using catalyst P25-graphene was also investigated. The degradation of rhodamine B was suppressed by the presence of NaCl, but the effect of Na2SO4 was negligible. The degradation of rhodamine B was significantly suppressed by all three types of surfactant, namely anionic, cationic and non-ionic surfactants. NMR technique was used to investigate the mechanisms associated with this suppression.