Fabrication of TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanoparticles on Large-Area Graphene Oxide Sheets as Promising Photocatalytic Material

Abstract

Nowadays, the discharge of synthetic dyes effluents into water system has created serious water contamination problems which could gravely impact the quality of human life. Photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) by TiO2 has shown superior performance on towards the remediation of various organic pollutants. In this study, two dimensional (2D) graphene oxide (GO) sheets supported titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by a simple and efficient sol-gel method using titanium isopropoxide (TTIP) and GO as the precursor. The graphite powder was first oxidized into hydrophilic GO using modified Hummer’s method followed by the addition of titanium solution. The resulting nanocomposites were then applied in the PCO of methyl orange under UV irradiation. The TiO2 nanoparticles were spherical in shape, with a particle size of 20-30 nm were well-deposited on the GO sheets. The presence of anatase phase in GO/TiO2 was confirmed by the XRD studies. The nanocomposites exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity than TiO2, probably due to the addition of graphene oxide which retard the electron-hole recombination in the hybrid material.