Eco-Friendly Reduction of Graphene Oxide by Aqueous Extracts for Photocatalysis Applications

Luz H Verástegui-Domínguez; Nora Elizondo-Villarreal; Dora Irma Martínez-Delgado; Miguel Ángel Gracia-Pinilla

doi:10.3390/nano12213882

Eco-Friendly Reduction of Graphene Oxide by Aqueous Extracts for Photocatalysis Applications

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Nov 3;12(21):3882. doi: 10.3390/nano12213882.

Authors

Luz H Verástegui-Domínguez¹, Nora Elizondo-Villarreal¹, Dora Irma Martínez-Delgado¹, Miguel Ángel Gracia-Pinilla^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Materiales Nanoestructurados (CICFIM), Facultad de Ciencias Físico Matemáticas (FCFM), Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), 66450 San Nicolás de los Garza, N.L., Mexico.
² Mesoscale Chemical Systems, MESA+ Institute, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500AE Enschede, The Netherlands.

Abstract

In the present work, reduced graphene oxide was obtained by green synthesis, using extracts of Larrea tridentata (gobernadora) and Capsicum Chinense (habanero). Graphene oxide was synthesized by the modified Hummers' method and subsequently reduced using natural extracts to obtain a stable and environmentally friendly graphene precursor. Consequently, the gobernadora aqueous extract was found to have a better reducing power than the habanero aqueous extract. This opportunity for green synthesis allows the application of RGO in photocatalysis for the degradation of the methylene blue dye. Degradation efficiencies of 60% and 90% were obtained with these materials.

Keywords: aqueous extracts; eco-friendly reduction; photocatalysis; reduced graphene oxide.

Grants and funding

The authors thank the support for the publication from the Project of Programa de Apoyo a la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (PAICYT) given by Dirección de Investigación of Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León.