Facile construction of ternary CuFe2O4-TiO2 nanocomposite supported reduced graphene oxide (rGO) photocatalysts for the efficient hydrogen production

Reduced graphene oxide supported CuFe2O4-TiO2p-n heterojunction nanocomposite was prepared via ultrasound assisted simple wet impregnation method. The nanocomposites were characterized, by XRD, FTIR, Raman Spectra, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, UV- vis, DRS Spectra, and PL Spectra. The optical band gap of rGO/CuFe2O4-TiO2 nanocomposite was found to be red shifted to 1.51 eV from 3.20 eV for pristine TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs). The photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared rGO/CuFe2O4-TiO2 nanocomposite was determined via photocatalytic water-splitting in the presence of glycerol as hole scavenger under UV-vis light irradiation. A peak hydrogen production rate of 35981 μmolg−1 h−1 was obtained, which is ∼8 and 3 times higher than that of bare TiO2 (4640 μmolg−1 h−1) and CuFe2O4-TiO2 photocatalysts (14719 μmolg−1 h−1), respectively. This remarkable improvement in the photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the enhanced visible light absorption and efficient charge carrier separation at the interface of rGO/CuFe2O4-TiO2 nanocomposites. A significant quenching of photoluminescence intensity of the rGO/CuFe2O4-TiO2 nanocomposite further confirmed the effective separation and transportation of photogenerated charge carriers in the presence of rGO sheet. A double charge separation and transportation mechanism is proposed for the enhanced photocatalytic activity.