▎ 摘　　要

In the present investigation, an efficient visible light-active, graphene oxide-based zirconium oxide nanocomposite (GO-ZrO2) has been synthesized by co-precipitationmethod. The synthesized photocatalyst was characterized by XRD, FTIR, FE-SEM, EDS, TEM, TGA, PL, UV-DRS and BET surface area analysis. The characterization results illustrate the homogeneous dispersion of ZrO2 nanoparticles in the GO-ZrO2 nanocomposite with excellent harmony between GO and ZrO2 nanoparticles. The photocatalytic efficiency of the synthesized GO-ZrO2 nanocomposite was evaluated by photodegradation of hazardous, water-soluble rhodamine B and methylene blue dyes under visible light irradiation. The 90% photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B dye (with initial conc. 30mg/L) was observed in 105min of visible light irradiation, while 99.23% of methylene blue (with initial conc. 100mg/L) dyes degradation was observed in just 60min using 25mg/100ml dose of GO-ZrO2 nanocomposite as a photocatalyst. The mechanistic investigation using scavengers suggest that the superoxide (O-2(-)) is the most reactive species involved in the photodegradation of organic dyes. The synthesized photocatalyst GO-ZrO2 nanocomposite also exhibits excellent thermal stability and reusability.