Iron phthalocyanine-graphene donor-acceptor hybrids for visible-light-assisted degradation of phenol in the presence of H2O2

Iron(II) phthalocyanine (FePc) is immobilized on graphene sheets to form a graphene(G)/iron(II) phthalocyanine hybrid (G/FePc) by the π–π stacking method. The resultant hybrids are characterized by UV–vis absorption spectra, FTIR, Raman spectra, BET, TEM, SEM and XRD. The result suggests that the interaction between graphene and FePc follows a donor-acceptor mode and the loading of FePc on graphene sheets not only facilitates the dispersion of FePc on graphene but also promotes the exfoliation of the graphene sheets. These samples are tested for photocatalytic degradation of phenol under visible light irradiation (λ ≥ 420 nm). And the photocatalytic activity of graphene, which is not presented when graphene individually acts on phenol, is greatly enhanced because of the π–π stacking interaction when FePc loaded on graphene. The G/FePc hybrid containing 25 wt.% FePc (G/FePc-0.25) exhibits the best photoactivity among the different loading content of FePc, whose degradation rate for phenol achieves 77.1% in the presence of H2O2 under visible light irradiation for 3 h.