Single-step One-pot Synthesis of TiO2 Nanosheets Doped with Sulfur on Reduced Graphene Oxide with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity

Weilin Wang; Zhaofeng Wang; Jingjing Liu; Zhu Luo; Steven L Suib; Peng He; Guqiao Ding; Zhengguo Zhang; Luyi Sun

doi:10.1038/srep46610

Single-step One-pot Synthesis of TiO₂ Nanosheets Doped with Sulfur on Reduced Graphene Oxide with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity

Sci Rep. 2017 Apr 21:7:46610. doi: 10.1038/srep46610.

Authors

Weilin Wang^{1

2}, Zhaofeng Wang², Jingjing Liu², Zhu Luo³, Steven L Suib^{2

3}, Peng He⁴, Guqiao Ding⁴, Zhengguo Zhang¹, Luyi Sun^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer &Energy Conservation, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510640, China.
² Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, United States.
³ Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, United States.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200050, China.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, United States.

Abstract

A hybrid photocatalyst based on anatase TiO₂ was designed by doping TiO₂ with sulfur and incorporating reduced graphene oxide (TiO₂-S/rGO hybrid), with an aim to narrow the band gap to potentially make use of visible light and decrease the recombination of excitons, respectively. This TiO₂-S/rGO hybrid was successfully synthesized using a one-pot hydrothermal method via single-step reaction. The structure and morphology of the TiO₂-S/rGO hybrid catalyst was carefully characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Its photocatalytic reactivity was evaluated by the degradation of methyl blue. The results showed that both the doping of sulfur and the introduction of rGO worked as designed, and the TiO₂-S/rGO hybrid exhibited high photocatalytic activity under simulated sunlight. Considering both the facile and scalable reaction to synthesize TiO₂-S/rGO hybrid, and its excellent photocatalytic performance, such TiO₂-S/rGO hybrids are expect to find practical applications in environmental and energy sectors.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't