The preparation of reduced graphene oxide-TiO2 composite materials towards transparent, strain sensing and photodegradation multifunctional films

In this study, reduced graphene oxide-TiO2 (rGO-T) composite films fabricated by a spray coating method are proposed to develop a multifunctional material for the application of strain sensing and photodegradation. This work provides a simple and versatile approach to prepare rGO-T as a multifunctional material. The drastic synergy effect was found simply by mixing graphene oxide with TiO2. The obtained multifunctional rGO-T composite films showed relatively high optical transmittance (around 60% at a 550 nm wavelength), excellent strain sensing property with gauge factors (GF) of 12-23 and enhanced photocatalytic property. The remarkable performance could be attributed to the combination of electrical and mechanical properties of rGO nanosheets and photocatalytic performance derived from TiO2 nanoparticles. Overall, this work could provide new insights into the research of the graphene-TiO2 composite materials and facilitate their application in a broad range.