CdS nanowires-nitrogen doped graphene (CdS NWs-NGR) nanocomposites have been fabricated by an electrostatic self-assembly strategy followed by a hydrothermal reduction. The CdS NWs-NGR exhibits higher photoactivity for selective reduction of aromatic nitro organics in water under visible light irradiation than blank CdS nanowires (CdS NWs) and CdS nanowires-reduced graphene oxide (CdS NWs-RGO) nanocomposites. The enhanced photoactivity of CdS NWs-NGR can be attributed to the improved electronic conductivity due to the introduc- tion of nitrogen atoms, which thus enhances the separation and transfer of charge carriers photogenerated from CdS NWs. Our work could provide a facile method to synthesize NGR based one-dimensional (1D) semiconductor composites for selective organic transformations, and broaden the potential applications for NGR as a cocatalyst.
Two-dimensional (2-D) BiVO4 nanosheets-graphene (GR) composites with different weight addition ratios of GR have been prepared via a facile wet chemistry process. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nitrogen adsorption-desorption, transient photocurrent response and photoluminescence (PL) spectra were employed to determine the properties of the samples. It is found that BiVO4 nanosheets could pave well on the surface of graphene sheets. BiVO4 nanosheets-GR composites with a proper addition amount of GR exhibited higher photocatalytic activity than bare BiVO4 nanosheets toward liquid-phase degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) and methyl orange (MO) under visible light irradiation. The enhancement of photocatalytic activities of BiVO4 nanosheets-GR composites can be attributed to the effective separation of photoexcited electron-hole pairs. This work not only provides a simple strategy for fabricating specific 2-D semiconductor-2-D GR composites, but also opens a new window of such 2-D semiconductor-2-D GR composites as visible light photocatalysts toward an improved visible light photoactivity in purifying polluted water resources.