Graphene/TiO2 nanocomposites: synthesis, characterization and application in hydrogen evolution from water photocatalytic splitting

TLDR

The authors synthesized TiO₂/graphene sheet composites via a sol–gel route from tetrabutyl titanate and graphite oxide, characterized them with XRD, BET, Raman, TEM, XPS, and UV–vis, and evaluated their photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under UV–vis illumination while varying graphene content and calcination atmosphere. The study found that both graphene sheet loading and calcination atmosphere significantly influence the hydrogen evolution performance of the TiO₂/graphene composites.

Abstract

A series of titanium dioxide and graphene sheets (GSs) composites were synthesized with a sol–gel method using tetrabutyl titanate and graphite oxide (GO) as the starting materials. The obtained TiO2/GSs photocatalysts are characterized by X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption analysis, Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared samples was evaluated by hydrogen evolution from water photo-splitting under UV-vis illumination. The influence of GSs content and calcinations atmosphere on the photocatalytic activity was also investigated. The results show that both GSs content and the calcinations atmosphere can affect the photocatalytic activity of the obtained composites.