Study On The Preparation Of Functionalized Graphene And Photocatalytic Property

Graphene is a single-layer network structure of carbon atoms that possesses favorablephysical and chemical properties such as high electrical conductivity, exceptional opticalproperties, large specific surface area and excellent mechanical strength. Graphene, anew-type nanomaterial, has recently drawn much attention and been extensively studied in thescientific community. Graphene has been obtained by many methods includingmicromechanical exfoliation of the graphite, chemical vapor deposition, graphite oxidesmethods and so on. Graphene is also used as building blocks to synthetize functionalgraphene composites with metal ion or metal oxide, polymer and biomacromolecule. Thecomposites has more excellent properties and more widely application. Combining graphenewith semiconductors to form composite photocatalysts has aroused much concern, which canextend its light absorption edge, improve the migration rate of charge carriers, and enhancethe adsorption capacity of contaminants. This photocatalyst has great potential in sewagedisposal, air purge and utilizing solar energy. It is essential to synthesize high-performancephotocatalyst through a mild and environmental method.In this work, WO3/graphene nanocomposite (WO3/GN) was prepared via an easy andscalable approach to decorate WO3particles on the graphene sheets from a graphite electrodeby twelve tungsten phosphate acid assisted electrochemical exfoliation. The samples werefully characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and transmission electron microscopy(TEM). The photocatalytic performance of the samples was investigated by thedecomposition of the methylene blue (MB) under UV light irradiation, which is low powercompared with previous published articles. The samples exhibited high degradation rate (upto80%).In conclusion, we received the WO3decorated graphene sheets by a simple method ofelectrolysis with twelve tungsten phosphate acid solution as electrolyte. The sample displayhigh photocatalytic activity in the degradation of methylene blue as photocatalyst.