Preparation And Investigation Of TiO₂Nanotubes/Graphene Composite Photocatalyst

Photocatalytic technology have important and promising application in field of environmental management and green energy, researches of photocatalysis have attracted lots of interests. TiO2became the most applicable photocatalysis because of its various advantages, but it still hassome shortcomings.Researchers place high hopes on the application of graphene inphotocatalytic enhancement of photocatalysis, because of its excellent properties. TiO2nanotubes have more merits, and according to authors knowledge, few reports that about photocatalytic enhancement of TiO2nanotubes with graphene have been carried out. In this article,TiO2nanotubes/graphene composite photocatalyst was synthesized and investigated. Mains works include:1. Synthesized TiO2nanotubes through hydrothermal method, and investigated the influences ofdifferent annealing temperatures(300℃﹑350℃﹑400℃﹑450℃﹑500℃﹑) on morphology and phase compositions to obtain the appropriate annealing temperature that will result in a good anatase phase but not making the tubular structure collapse;2. Prepared graphite oxide and graphene using oxidation-reduction two-step method and investigated their properties that is relevant to their photocatalytic activity;3. Synthesized two different kinds of TiO2nanotubes/graphene composite photocatalyst by using two different methods:(1) Hydrothemal treating TiO2nanotubes/graphite oxide composite (product called TG);(2) Mechanical agitating TiO2nanotubes/graphene composite(product called T+G);4. Investigatedphotocatalytic activity of TG and T+G. By analyzing and comparing the results, made conclusions on their differences of compositing and interaction between TiO2nanotubes and graphene. At last, found out the better one of the two synthesizing methods, and its best mass ratio of the starting materials.The results and conclusions in this article, will extend the research of TiO2/graphene composite photocatalyst, help making a better understandings of interaction between TiO2nanotubes and graphene. They could be applied not only in field of environmental management and green energy, but also in other fields such as efficiency improvement of sensitized solar cell.