Fabrication of a Graphene@TiO ₂ @Porphyrin Hybrid Material and Its Photocatalytic Properties under Simulated Sunlight Irradiation

Abstract

Abstract The fabrication of a nanostructured graphene@TiO 2 @porphyrin composite was achieved via surfactant‐assisted self‐assembly. The obtained nanostructures were fully characterized by UV‐vis, fluorescence emission spectroscopy, SEM, XRD and FTIR techniques. The graphene@TiO 2 @porphyrin composite reveals good incorporation of TiO 2 particles with a diameter of 15–30 nm, and aggregated porphyrin nanorods with 50–60 nm width and several hundreds of nanometers in length on the graphene surface. The applications of three components (graphene@TiO 2 @porphyrin) based nanostructure in photocatalytic pollutant degradation Rhodamine B is reported, where TiO 2 and porphyrin aggregates are shown to be activated for UV and visible light respectively, resulting in a high performing composite. The possible photocatalytic mechanism of RhB degradation by graphene@TiO 2 @porphyrins composite is discussed.