Methylene blue (MB) is commonly used as a medication and dye for various purposes and its presence in an aqueous solution may prove to be toxic and can cause various health problems. Due to this, the removal of MB dye from aqueous solutions is one of the major concerns for the scientific community. Photocatalyst is a promising material for the effective degradation of MB dye whereas traditional catalyst is not effective in the presence of visible light. In this short communication, the possibility of photocatalyst based on graphene oxide (GO) decorated with silver nanowires (AgNWs) will be explored. Graphene oxide is an insulator in nature and various oxygen containing groups are present in its structure. In order to increase its surface area and convert it from insulator to conductor, reduction is required. However, reduction using chemicals cause environmental pollution. In order to overcome this problem, electroplating method is used here for altering GO into rGO. Furthermore, in order to explore the synergetic effect of AgNWs, decoration of these has been carried out onto rGO surface. The change in the band gap of rGO in the presence of AgNWs is investigated here which is significant parameter of photocatalyst. The influence of AgNWs onto the specific surface area of rGO can also be explored. It is clearly indicated that the presence of AgNWs onto rGO can decrease the band gap and increase the specific surface area of nanocomposite, which has been required in photocatalysis application. It is expected that the synthesized nanocomposite is a promising photocatalyst for the degradation of MB dye.

Reduced graphene oxide, Silver nanowires, Methylene blue, Nanocomposite