Microwave-assisted synthesis of TiO2-reduced graphene oxide composites for the photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI)

Xinjuan Liu; Likun Pan; Tian Lv; Guang Zhu; Ting Lu; Zhuo Sun; Changqing Sun

doi:10.1039/C1RA00298H

Microwave-assisted synthesis of TiO₂-reduced graphene oxide composites for the photocatalytic reduction of Cr(vi)

Xinjuan Liu,^a Likun Pan,*^a Tian Lv,^a Guang Zhu,^a Ting Lu,^a Zhuo Sun^a and Changqing Sun^b

* Corresponding authors

^a Engineering Research Center for Nanophotonics & Advanced Instrument, Ministry of Education, Department of Physics, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
E-mail: lkpan@phy.ecnu.edu.cn
Fax: +86 21 62234321
Tel: +86 21 62234132

^b School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

Abstract

TiO₂-reduced graphene oxide (RGO) composites are successfully synthesized via the microwave-assisted reduction of graphite oxide in a TiO₂ suspension using a microwave synthesis system. Their morphology, structure and photocatalytic performance in the reduction of Cr(VI) are characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy and UV-vis absorption spectrophotometer. The results show that in the composite the RGO nanosheets are densely decorated by TiO₂ nanoparticles, which displays a good combination between RGO and TiO₂. TiO₂–RGO composites exhibit enhanced photocatalytic performance for the reduction of Cr(VI) with a maximum removal rate of 91% under UV light irradiation as compared with pure TiO₂ (83%) and commercial TiO₂ P25 (70%) due to the increased light absorption intensity and range as well as the reduction of electron-hole pair recombination in TiO₂ with the introduction of RGO.

Article information

https://doi.org/10.1039/C1RA00298H

Article type

Paper

Submitted

13 Jun 2011

Accepted

14 Aug 2011

First published

19 Sep 2011

Download Citation

RSC Adv., 2011,1, 1245-1249

Permissions

Request permissions

Microwave-assisted synthesis of TiO₂-reduced graphene oxide composites for the photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI)

X. Liu, L. Pan, T. Lv, G. Zhu, T. Lu, Z. Sun and C. Sun, RSC Adv., 2011, 1, 1245 DOI: 10.1039/C1RA00298H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

RSC Advances