▎ 摘　　要

Graphene@BiPO4 nanocomposite with unique rod shape morphology of BiPO4 has been successfully fabricated by the simple microwave assisted hydrothermal method. The crucial role of graphene oxide in the growth of rod shaped BiPO4 crystals has been attempted to explain in this article. Graphene oxide acts as a structure-directing and morphology-controlling agent in the nucleation and growth of nanocrystals. The as prepared organic-inorganic hybrid Graphene@BiPO4 nanocomposite photocatalyst was characterized by various techniques i.e. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The results were promising and shown enhanced photocatalytic activity than pure BiPO4 for phenol degradation. The effect of graphene loading on the rates of photocatalytic degradation of phenol in solution is investigated. The result shows that the optimum photocatalytic activity of Graphene@BiPO4 composite at 5 wt% of graphene under visible light is almost three times higher than pure BiPO4. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.