TiO2-RGO hybrid nanomaterials for enhanced water splitting reaction

The production of H2 via photocatalytic water splitting reaction has attracted a great attention as a clean and renewable energy for next generation. Despite tremendous efforts, the present challenge for materials scientist is to develop highly active photo catalysts for splitting of water at low cost. This article reports the synthesis of TiO2-reduced graphene oxide hybrid nanomaterials through ionothermal method using functionalized ionic liquid for the enhanced hydrogen generation via water splitting reaction. The structural and morphological properties of the samples were investigated by XRD, Raman spectroscopy, TG-DTA, UV-vis spectroscopy and TEM. A substantial increase of H2 evolution was observed for TiO2-reduced graphene oxide hybrid nanomaterials. This is due to the high migration efficiency of photo-induced electrons and the inhibition of charge-carrier recombination due to the electronic interaction between TiO2 and reduced graphene oxide. i.e, reduced graphene oxide acts as an electron-acceptor which effectively hinders the electron-hole pair recombination of TiO2.