In situ hydrothermal preparation and photocatalytic desulfurization performance of graphene wrapped TiO2 composites

Abstract

Organosulfur impurities in fuels cause severe environmental pollution and poison the catalysts used in vehicle exhausts’ gas converters. Here we developed a facile “In suithydrothermal” method to prepare reduced graphene oxide (RGO) supported TiO2 catalyst and applied it for oxidative desulfurization of thiophene(T) in model fuel. The RGO/TiO2 catalysts were characterized by FT-IR, XPS, SEM, XRD and UV–Vis spectroscopy. The photocatalytic properties were evaluated by the degradation of thiophene in model fuel. The catalytic activity of RGO/TiO2 composites for the oxidation of thiophene in n-octane is relatively higher than those of pure GO or TiO2 power. Moreover, the thiophene conversion rate reached 94.3% with RGO/TiO2 composite catalyst after treatment for 100 min at atmospheric pressure. The graphene oxide is partially reduced during the “in situ hydrothermal” process. The photocatalysis mechanism indicated that RGO/TiO2 photocatalysts are facilitating to electron transfer fromTiO2 to RGO and enhance the adsorption of the target pollutants to improve the oxidative desulfurization (ODS) performance.