Facile synthesis of carbon layered TiO2 nanocomposite for high photocatalytic activity

Abstract

A green synthesis route was designed to develop a visible-light-driven thin carbon layered titanium dioxide (CLT) nanocomposite using ascorbic acid as carbon precursor. The presence of a thin layer of carbon (CLT) on the TiO2 surface was observed from HR-TEM. The thickness of CLT is directly proportional to the concentration of carbon precursor, where this CLT acts a photosensitizer for harvesting the broad band of visible light spectrum. CLT nanocomposite (15.485 m2/g) showed an improved surface area of 1.4 times that of a commercial TiO2 (7.461 m2/g). The photocatalytic activity of CLT nanocomposite was investigated for the volatile organic compound destruction using p-xylene pollutant in a standard ISO photocatalytic oxidation reactor under daylight. The mechanism pathway of CLT nanocomposite was followed by the adsorption of chemical contaminants in the pores of CLT that precisely capture the contaminants capture and destruction on its surface. The electron-hole pair recombination rate of CLT nanocomposite was lower than the pristine TiO2 was evident from photoluminescence spectra. The antibacterial activity of CLT was also studied using E. coli as a model pathogen. This environmentally friendly photocatalyst CLT offers a novel route for good industrial utilization because of its low cost and mass production.