Graphitic carbon-encapsulated V2O5 nanocomposites as a superb photocatalyst for crystal violet degradation

Abstract

To materialize the excellent photocatalyst for crystal violet dye-degradation, the graphitic carbon-encapsulated vanadium pentoxide (GC-V2O5) nanocomposites were synthesized through the simple sonication method by using the green tea waste-derived GC nanoflakes and the sonochemically synthesized V2O5 nanorods. The nanocomposites were confirmed to comprise an aggregated morphology, in which the orthorhombic V2O5 nanorods were well anchored with the intertwingled GC nanoflakes. Owing to the encapsulation of defective V2O5 by conductive GC, the GC-V2O5 nanocomposites exhibited the enhanced photocatalytic dye-degradation efficiency up to 98.4% within 105 min. Namely, the encapsulated GC nanosheets might compensate the native defects (i.e., charge traps) on the V2O5 surface; hence, the charge transport could be enhanced during the dye-degradation process while the photocarrier recombination could be suppressed. The results suggest the conducting layer-encapsulated semiconducting oxide nanocomposites (e.g., GC-V2O5) to be of good use for future green environmental technology, particularly, as a superb photocatalyst for dye degradation.