Eco-friendly synthesis of reduced graphene oxide as sustainable catalyst for photodegradation of methylene blue

Synthetic dyes are employed as colouring agents in various industries such as textile, food, paper, leather, and printing. Sustainable removal of these environmentally toxic colouring agents is a daunting task. In this regard, we report an environment friendly synthesis of reduced graphene oxide prepared by the aqueous extract of the resin of Araucaria cunninghammii (ACrGO). Successful reduction of graphene oxide (GO) was achieved with the help of the extract. The synthesized ACrGO nanocomposite was characterized using UV-visible spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction and energy dispersive x-ray analysis. Successful conversion of GO to ACrGO was indicated by an increase in the C/O atomic ratio from 0.8 to 1.4. Superior catalytic activity of ACrGO was observed by effective degradation of the methylene blue dye with a net degradation of 84% in 50 minutes following a pseudo-first order decay kinetics. This study specifies the exploration of various green reducing agents for the reduction of GO as catalysts for improved catalytic appli-cations in future.