LAUSR

Abstract The interface-induced effects of heteronanostructures are attracting many attentions due to their potentials in photocatalysis applications. In this work, reduced graphene oxide-CoS (rGO-CoS) heteronanostructures were synthesized with a chemical method. The characterization of these nanomaterials was performed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV–vis spectroscopy, and photocatalytic activities to understand the physical and chemical behavior of these materials. The effects of rGO/CoS ratio, initial solution pH, and H 2 O 2 on the photodegradation of malachite green in a water were studied. The hybrids showed excellent sunlight-excited photocatalytic and Fenton-like photocatalytic activities to the dye, better than that of the CoS nanoparticles and enhanced as increasing rGO/CoS ratio and decreasing initial pH. The photodegradation rate constant, k obs, was determined under pseudo-first order conditions. The enhanced photoctalytic activities with rGO/CoS were ascribed to the enhanced charge transfer at the interface. The interface effect was confirmed by the calculations of band energy level and optical conductivity.