In-situ fabrication of TiO2-MWCNT composite for an efficient electron transfer photocatalytic rhodamine B dye degradation under UV–visible light

Abstract

In this work, TiO2 nanoparticles with MWCNT composite have been prepared via an in-situ method. The structure, morphology, and optical properties of the catalysts were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, UV-DRS, SEM, and mapping analysis. The optimized TiO2-MWCNT composite shows better photocatalytic rhodamine B dye degradation under UV–Visible Light. This higher photocatalytic activity of TiO2-MWCNT composite is due to reduce the band gap and also MWCNT acts as an electron relay system to enhance the charge separation and reduce the recombination of electron and hole pairs. This result was further confirmed through photocurrent and impedance spectroscopy. In addition, the effect of some common inorganic anions was investigated and discussed. The degradation mechanism was investigated via radical scavengers' test and discussed. We Hope, this work can provide new ideas for the efficient photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes and beyond.