Gram-scale production of graphene oxide–TiO2 nanorod composites: Towards high-activity photocatalytic materials

Here we present a simple two-phase assembling method to produce high-quality graphene oxide–TiO2 nanorod composites (GO–TiO2 NRCs) on gram scale. TiO2 nanorods dispersed in toluene are synthesized from a facile two-phase hydrothermal method. The effective attachment of TiO2 nanorods on the whole GO sheets at the water–toluene interface is confirmed by Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The as-synthesized TiO2 nanorods show a slightly higher efficiency in the photocatalytic degradation of C. I. Acid Orange 7 (AO 7) irradiated under UV light (λ = 254 nm) and higher antibacterial activity under simulated sunlight than that of TiO2 nanoparticles with the same diameter. After combined with graphene oxide (GO), the GO–TiO2 NRCs show much higher photocatalytic activities than that of TiO2 nanorods alone and the GO–TiO2 nanoparticle composites (GO–TiO2 NPCs). The ratio of TiO2 and GO has no evident effect on the photocatalytic activity of GO–TiO2 NRCs when all the TiO2 nanorods are anchored on the GO sheets. The higher photocatalytic activity of GO–TiO2 NRCs is ascribed to the anti-charge recombination and the more (1 0 1) facets. Considering the superior photocatalytic activity of GO–TiO2 NRCs and the fact that they can been easily mass-produced, we expect this material may find important applications in environmental engineering and other fields.

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► High-quality graphene oxide–TiO2 nanorod composites (GO–TiO2 NRCs) were produced though a two-phase assembling method to produce on gram scale.
► The prepared GO–TiO2 NRCs had high photocatalytic activity in the photodegradation of C. I. Acid Orange 7 and the photocatalytic disinfection of Escherichia coli.
► The comparative study shows that TiO2 nanorods have better photocatalytic activity than TiO2 nanoparticles no matter whether they are anchored to GO sheets or not.