Visible Light Driven Photocatalytic Efficiency of rGO‐Ag‐BiFeO ₃ Ternary Nanohybrids on the Decontamination of Dye‐Polluted Water: An Amalgamation of 1D, 2D and 3D Systems

Abstract

Abstract Ternary hybrid nanostructures consisting of 2D reduced graphene oxide (rGO), 1D fibers/3D particulate bismuth ferrite (BiFeO 3 /BFO) and 3D silver (Ag) nanostructures have been fabricated and their photocatalytic efficiency on the decontamination of dye polluted water under the irradiation of natural and simulated sunlight sources have been investigated. The optical analysis by UV‐visible absorption, diffuse reflectance and photoluminescence spectroscopy revealed that the manifested decreased band gap energy and reduced radiative‐emission in the hybrids could be essentially due to the alignments of band edge positions and localized surface plasmon resonance effects in the hybrids. Accordingly, the observed photocatalytic efficiency of the hybrids under natural and simulated solar light are attributed to the above said amalgamated effects, which eventually led to the increased productions of redox species, and the effective interactions of rGO−Ag‐BFO hybrids with the dye molecules.