Synthesis and study of the properties of nanocomposite materials TiO2-GO and TiO2-rGO

In this paper, a comparative study of the properties of nanocomposites based on TiO2 and graphene oxide (GO) or reduced graphene oxide (rGO) obtained by hydrothermal synthesis was performed. It is shown that the photocatalytic properties of nanocomposites increase with a decrease in the degree of the number of functional groups in GO. The formation of nanocomposites is confirmed by XRD analysis, SEM, Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy. SEM shows sheets of GO, which are applied on the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles. Raman spectra of nanocomposites show peaks which are specific to TiO2 and GO. IR spectra confirm the formation of a Ti?O?C bond between TiO2 and GO. Partially disappear of the functional group which is specific characteristic of GO, indicates the reduction process during the synthesis. The absorption spectra of the nanocomposite are bathochromically shifted that is indicate a change in the width of the band gap of the material. Evaluation of electrophysical properties showed that nanocomposites with rGO content equal to 10 wt% and GO equal to 5 wt% have the best parameters. It shown that the combination of an increase in electrotransport, optical and adsorption parameters of nanocomposites leads to an increase in their photocatalytic activity compared to TiO2 without the addition of GO. It was registered increasing the value of the photocurrent by 2.5 times for the nanocomposite of TiO2-GO/5 wt% and 3.1 times for the TiO2-rGO/10 wt%. However, the rate of photodegradation of the organic dye was increased by almost 7.5 and 10 times, respectively.