Hydrothermal synthesis of graphene wrapped Fe-doped TiO2 nanospheres with high photocatalysis performance

In this study, graphene wrapped Fe-doped TiO2 (G-TiO2-Fe) spheres were prepared through a simple hydrothermal process. The structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of synthesized composite were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman Microprobe (Raman), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer (DRS). The G-TiO2-Fe composite showed a significant red-shift in light response edge as compared with TiO2. Meanwhile, the band gap exhibited an obvious decline from 3.24 to 2.99 eV. The photocatalytic capacity of G-TiO2-Fe was further evaluated by methylene blue (MB) degradation experiments, and the results indicated that the optimized G-TiO2-Fe exhibited a remarkable increase in photocatalytic activity. The superior photocatalytic performance of the novel material could be ascribed to the synthetic effects of doped Fe and wrapped graphene shells. The unique geometrical configuration and constructive component which modified the TiO2 electronic structure will largely improve the electron transporting efficiency and restrain the electron-hole recombination.