Localized Building Titania-Graphene Charge Transfer Interfaces for Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance

Jianqiang Luo; Zhijian Wang; Hongxia Jiang; Shujuan Liu; Feng-Qiang Xiong; Jianguo Ma

doi:10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c00297

Localized Building Titania-Graphene Charge Transfer Interfaces for Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance

Langmuir. 2020 May 5;36(17):4637-4644. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c00297. Epub 2020 Apr 23.

Authors

Jianqiang Luo^{1

2}, Zhijian Wang³, Hongxia Jiang¹, Shujuan Liu¹, Feng-Qiang Xiong¹, Jianguo Ma¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Resources and Environment, East China University of Technology, Nanchang, 330013, Jiangxi, China.
² Jiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Polymer Micro/Nano Manufacturing and Devices, Nanchang, 330013, Jiangxi, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan, 030001, China.

PMID: 32259452
DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c00297

Abstract

Achieving high photocatalytic activity of titania-graphene composites calls for well-controlled titania size and efficient charge transfer interfaces. However, it is rather difficult because of easy restacking of graphene sheets and random nucleation and growth of titania nanoparticles in solution. Here, we reported a facile way to control the TiO₂ sizes and interfaces by localizing the nucleation and growth of titania on graphene sheets, which prohibits both restacking of graphene and random growth of TiO₂. As a result, a composite with controllably less than 10-nm-sized TiO₂ nanoparticles evenly distributed on thin graphene sheets was achieved. Thanks to the small size of titania and efficient charge transfer interfaces, the TiO₂/graphene composite exhibits a significant enhancement of photocatalytic H₂ evolution activity, reaching 1.35 mmol g^-1 h^-1. Furthermore, the composite also shows high photocatalytic activity on dye degradation under visible light illumination.