Cerium-based metal sulfide derived nanocomposite-embedded rGO as an efficient catalyst for photocatalytic application

Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with metal sulfides is an efficient photocatalyst for treating textile effluent. Herein, a hydrothermal technique was used to synthesize transition metal sulfide with rGO nanocomposite. Under 120 min of sunlight exposure, the cerium-nickel sulfide/rGO nanocomposite (Ce₂S₃-NiS₂/rGO) photodegraded the methyl orange (MO) dye with an efficiency of 89.1% which is significantly higher than that of bare nickel sulfide (NiS₂) and cerium sulfide (Ce₂S₃) photocatalysts. Moreover, another model pollutant dye bromophenol blue (BP) was treated under the same experimental condition, and it has achieved about 84.2% degradation efficiency. The combination of NiS₂ and Ce₂S₃ improves the separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers, resulting in improved photocatalytic activity. In addition, ternary metal sulfide with rGO increases pollutant adsorption and electron-hole photogenerated pairs. Therefore, the mechanism of photocatalytic Ce₂S₃-NiS₂/rGO is investigated in detail. This research could pave the way for the development of capable and adaptable Ce₂S₃-NiS₂/rGO photocatalysts for environmental remediation.