Nitrogen doped RGO-CoO nanograin cookies: highly porous and robust catalyst for removing nitrophenol from waste water.

The fabrication of nanograins with a uniform morphology wrapped with reduced graphene oxide (RGO) in a designed manner is critical for obtaining a large surface, high porosity and efficient catalytic ability at mild conditions. Hybrid structures of metal oxides decorated on two-dimensional (2D) RGO lacked an interface and channels between the individual grains and RGO. The present work focuses on the synthesis of RGO-wrapped CoO nanograin architecture in micron-sized polyhedrons and the ability to reduce aromatic nitro compounds. Doping N in the designed microstructure polyhedrons resulted in very large surface area (1085.6 m g) and pore density (0.47 m g) microcages. Binding energies from x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman intensities confirmed the presence of doped N and RGO-wrapped around CoO nanograins. However, the morphology and microstructure was supported by FESEM and HRTEM images revealing the fabrication of high integrity RGO-CoO microstructure hybrids composed of a 10 nm grain size with narrower grain size distribution. Ammonia treatment produced interconnected channels and dumbbell pores that facilitated ion exchange between the catalyst surface and the liquid medium at the grain boundary interfaces, and offered less mass transport resistance providing fast adsorption of reactants and desorption of the product causing surface renewal. Prepared N-RGO-CoO shows the largest percentage reduction (96%) of p-nitrophenol (p-NP) at room temperature as compared to pure CoO and RGO-CoO nanograin microstructures over 10 min. Fabricated architectures can be applied effectively for fast and facile treatment of industrial waste streams with complex organic molecules.