TiO2 nanofibers coated with rGO and Ag2O for promoting visible light photocatalytic performance

Due to the increase in environmental pollution, highly efficient photocatalysts with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity have attracted considerable attention. In this work, TiO2/reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/Ag2O nanoheterostructures (NHs) based photocatalysts are successfully synthesized and a markedly higher visible light photocatalytic activity is achieved, of which at least 96% of Rhodamine B (RhB) molecules are decomposed by the TiO2/rGO/Ag2O NHs after 120 min visible light irradiation, but only 30% of RhB molecules are decomposed by pure TiO2 nanofibers (NFs). Furthermore, the influence of rGO volume ratio in TiO2/rGO/Ag2O NHs photocatalysts on visible light photocatalysis is studied, and the result shows that the sample with 5 vol% rGO exhibits the highest visible light photocatalytic activity. The much enhanced visible light photocatalytic performance of the ternary TiO2/rGO/Ag2O NHs can be ascribed to the intense visible light absorption of Ag2O, the excellent electron conductivity of 2D rGO and the matched energy level of TiO2, Ag2O, and rGO, for efficient boost of the photogenerated charge carriers transfer and separation at the interface of hierarchical TiO2/rGO/Ag2O NHs.