Ultrasonic assisted synthesis of TiO2-reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites with superior photovoltaic and photocatalytic activities

In this work, TiO2-reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanocomposites were successfully produced by an ultrasonication-assisted reduction process. The reduction of graphene oxide (GO) and the formation TiO2 crystals occurred simultaneously. The synthesized nanocomposite was characterized by SEM, EDX, Raman spectroscopy, FTIR, XRD, XPS, UV-vis spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectrometer and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. As a result of the introduction of RGO, the light absorption of octahedral TiO2 was markedly improved. The photocatalytic results revealed that weight percent of RGO has substantial influence on degradation of Rhodamine B under visible light irradiation. The enhancement of the photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the enhancement of the visible-light irradiation harvesting and efficiently separation of the photogenerated charge carriers. Meanwhile, upon the RGO loading, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of TiO2-RGO nanocomposite modified electrode was also highly improved.