Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
7707485 | International Journal of Hydrogen Energy | 2018 | 13 Pages |
Abstract
Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) supported g-C3N4-TiO2 ternary hybrid layered photocatalyst was prepared via ultrasound assisted simple wet impregnation method with different mass ratios of g-C3N4 to TiO2. The synthesized composite was investigated by various characterization techniques, such as XRD, FTIR, Raman Spectra, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, UV vis DRS Spectra, XPS Spectra and PL Spectra. The optical band gap of g-C3N4-TiO2/rGO nanocomposite was found to be red shifted to 2.56 eV from 2.70 eV for bare g-C3N4. It was found that g-C3N4 and TiO2 in a mass ratio of 70:30 in the g-C3N4-TiO2/rGO nanocomposite, exhibits the highest hydrogen production activity of 23,143 μmol gâ1hâ1 through photocatalytic water splitting. The observed hydrogen production rate from glycerol-water mixture using g-C3N4-TiO2/rGO was found to be 78 and 2.5 times higher than g-C3N4 (296 μmol gâ1 hâ1) and TiO2 (11,954 μmol gâ1 hâ1), respectively. A direct contact between TiO2 and rGO in the g-C3N4-TiO2/rGO nanocomposite produces an additional 10,500 μmol gâ1hâ1 of hydrogen in 4 h of photocatalytic reaction than the direct contact between g-C3N4 and rGO. The enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production activity of the resultant nanocomposite can be ascribed to the increased visible light absorption and an effective separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs at the interface of g-C3N4-TiO2/rGO nanocomposite. The effective separation and transportation of photogenerated charge carriers in the presence of rGO sheet was further confirmed by a significant quenching of photoluminescence intensity of the g-C3N4-TiO2/rGO nanocomposite. The photocatalytic hydrogen production rate reported in this work is significantly higher than the previously reported work on g-C3N4 and TiO2 based photocatalysts.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Chemistry
Electrochemistry
Authors
Hafeez Yusuf Hafeez, Sandeep Kumar Lakhera, Sankeerthana Bellamkonda, G. Ranga Rao, M.V. Shankar, D.W. Bahnemann, Bernaurdshaw Neppolian,