Effect of graphite oxide on photodegradation behavior of poly(vinyl alcohol)/graphite oxide composite hydrogels

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) composites with various graphite oxide (GO) contents (0 to 10 wt%) were prepared by sonicating the mixture of PVA and GO, followed by crosslinking with glutaraldehyde. GO was pre-treated with oxyfluorination ($O_2:F_2$ = 8:2) in order to modify the surface of GO to allow it to carry hydrophilic functional groups. PVA/GO composite hydrogels were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR). The morphology of the PVA/GO composite hydrogels and the variations in soluble gel portion were investigated under various GO contents and UV irradiation doses. The variation in the chemical structure of photo degraded PVA/GO composite hydrogels was studied by FT-IR. The photochemical stability of PVA/GO composite hydrogels under UV irradiation was found to improve noticeably with increasing content of uniformly dispersed GO.