In situ hydrothermal synthesis of Y-TiO2/graphene heterojunctions with improved visible-light-driven photocatalytic properties

The Y-TiO2/graphene heterojunctions were prepared using a facile one-pot hydrothermal method. The SEM and TEM images showed that titanium dioxide and flaky graphene were tightly bound together, and XPS indicated that yttrium was doped uniformly into the complex. The crystal phase of titanium dioxide in Y-TiO2/graphene composite was anatase, and the yttrium doping caused distortion of the titanium dioxide lattice, resulting in a new valence type and more defects. An appropriate amount of yttrium doping and graphene modification significantly improved the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. In the degradation of rhodamine B, the co-modification of yttrium and graphene effectively improved the photocatalytic activity under visible and UV-vis light irradiation. With the amount of yttrium increasing, the photocatalytic activity of the Y-TiO2/graphene complex first increased and reached the highest level of 40% and 63% for visible and ultraviolet-visible light, respectively, when the ratio of yttrium was increased to 1.0%. The enhancement of photocatalytic activity can be explained by the presence of yttrium ions increased the visible light absorption of titanium dioxide. Besides, the synergistic effect between yttrium ions and graphene effectively improved the separation rate of photoinduced electron-hole pairs.