Well–dispersed assembled porphyrin nanorods on graphene for the enhanced photocatalytic performance

Abstract In this study, we report a facile synthetic protocol for the fabrication of well‐dispered porphyrin nanorods on the surface of graphene nanoplates (GNPs) by surfactant‐assisted self assembly of tetrakis (4‐carboxyphenyl) porphyrin (TCPP). The formation and crystalisation of GNPs‐supported TCPP nanorods were successfully characterized by SEM, XRD, FTIR, UV‐vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. The assembled TCPP nanorods with a 50 nm diameter and ∼250 nm in length are well distributed on the GNPs and was confirmed by electron microscopy i.e SEM and TEM. The resulted hybrid material shows enhanced visible‐light photocatalytic activity compared to free standing TCPP nanorods toward the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB). In addition, the photodegradation mechanism of RhB when using GNPs‐supported TCPP nanorods catalyst is also proposed.