Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been known as a suitable material for various photocatalytic applications due to its strong oxidizing power, high chemical inertness, low cost and long-term stability. This material has a somewhat drawback that TiO2 can utilize no more than 5% of the total solar energy impinging on the surface of the earth due to its wide band-gap energy (3 � 3.2 eV). One of the most effective ways to develop visible light responsive photocatalyst is to create impurity levels in the forbidden band through metal and non-metal ion doping. However, experimental results showed that photocatalytic activities of the resulting materials seriously decreased, because the impurity of foreign material doped in TiO2 acted as a charge recombination center.Here, facile preparation of graphene-modified carbon-doped TiO2 nanoparticles (GR�TiO2-xCx) is proposed for a highly visible light responsive photocatalyst. In addition, the enhanced photoelectrochemical properties of the GR�TiO2-xCx were quantified. The rate constant for electron-transfer, rate constant for phenol photodegradation, rate constant for hydroxyl radical formation and charge-transfer resistance were experimentally measured. The findings showed that photogenerated charges can be effectively transferred to surface active sites due to the low charge recombination. As a result, prolonged lifetime of photogenerated charges over the TiO2-xCx caused the formation of the larger amount of hydroxyl radicals with strong oxidizing power for the phenol degradation. The photocatalytic performance of the developed system was twice faster than that of bare TiO2-xCx, and 7 times faster than that of commercial TiO2 (P25), when irradiated with visible light.

Facile preparation and characterization of graphene-modified carbon-doped TiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles for a highly visible light responsive photocatalyst

247th National Meeting (2014)

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Facile preparation and characterization of graphene-modified carbon-doped TiO2 nanoparticles for a highly visible light responsive photocatalyst

Facile preparation and characterization of graphene-modified carbon-doped TiO₂ nanoparticles for a highly visible light responsive photocatalyst