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Pseudo and true visible light photocatalytic activity of nanotube titanic acid/graphene composites

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Abstract

Nanotube titanic acid/graphene (NTA/Gr) composites were prepared by an easy hydrothermal treatment of graphene oxide (GO) and NTA in a mixed solvent of ethanol–water. As-prepared NTA/Gr composites and GO were characterized by means of Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, diffuse-reflection spectrometry, thermal analysis, and transmission electron microscopy. Besides, the photocatalytic activities of as-prepared NTA/Gr composites were evaluated by monitoring the degradation of methyl orange (MO) under visible light irradiation. It has been found that extending hydrothermal reaction time (24 h instead of 3 h) leads to great changes in the morphology and crystal structure of as-prepared composites. Namely, the orthorhombic NTA (ca. 10 nm in diameter) in the composite transformed to anatase TiO2 particle (ca. 20–30 nm in diameter) while the Gr sheets (with micrometers-long wrinkles) in it transformed to a few Gr fragments (ca. 50 nm in diameter). Correspondingly, the NTA/Gr composite transformed to titanium dioxide/graphene (TiO2/Gr) composite. In the meantime, pure GO only has adsorption effect but it has no photocatalytic activity in the visible light region. Nevertheless, increasing Gr ratio results in enhanced visible light absorption capability and photocatalytic activity of NTA/Gr composites as well as the TiO2/Gr composites. This demonstrates that the true visible light photocatalytic activity of NTA/Gr composites as well as the TiO2/Gr composites for the degradation of MO is not as excellent as expected, and their high apparent activity is attributed to the strong adsorption of MO on the composites.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the financial support by the Key Laboratory Foundation of Henan Province (122300413205), the Postdoctoral Scientific Research Foundation of Henan University (BH2011054) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21203054 and 21103042).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Special Functional Materials, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China

    Xiaodong Wang, Xiaogang Liu, Xiaoxiao Xue, Hui Pan, Min Zhang, Qiuye Li, Laigui Yu, Jianjun Yang & Zhijun Zhang

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  1. Xiaodong Wang
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  2. Xiaogang Liu
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  3. Xiaoxiao Xue
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  4. Hui Pan
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Correspondence to Xiaodong Wang.

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Wang, X., Liu, X., Xue, X. et al. Pseudo and true visible light photocatalytic activity of nanotube titanic acid/graphene composites. J Nanopart Res 15, 1764 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-013-1764-5

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