Size-Controlled TiO(2) nanocrystals with exposed {001} and {101} facets strongly linking to graphene oxide via p-Phenylenediamine for efficient photocatalytic degradation of fulvic acids.
Photocatalytic degradation is one of the most promising methods for removal of fulvic acids (FA), which is a typical category of natural organic contamination in groundwater. In this paper, TiO2/graphene nanocomposites (N-RGO/TiO2) were prepared via simple chemical functionalization and one-step hydrothermal method for efficient photodegradation of FA under illumination of a xenon lamp as light source. Here, p-phenylenediamine was used as not only the linkage chemical agent between TiO2 nanocrystals and graphene, but also the nitrogen dopant for TiO2 nanocrystals and graphene. During the hydrothermal process, facets of TiO2 nanocrystals were modulated with addition of HF, and sizes of TiO2 nanocrystals were controlled by the contents of graphene oxide functionalized with p-phenylenediamine (RGO-NH2). The obtained N-RGO/TiO2 nanocomposites exhibited a much higher photocatalytic activity and stability for degradation of methyl blue (MB) and FA compared with other TiO2 samples under xenon lamp irradiation. For the third cycle, the 10wt%N-RGO/TiO2 catalyst maintains high photoactivity (87%) for the degradation of FA, which is much better than the TiO2-N/F (61%) in 3h. This approach supplies a new strategy to design and synthesize metal oxide and graphene oxide nanocomposites with highly efficient photocatalytic performance.
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, PR China.
Wen-Yuan
WY
Yan
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, PR China.
Qi
Q
Zhou
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, PR China; Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Environmental Detection, Institute of Intelligent Machines, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, PR China. Electronic address: xingchen@iim.ac.cn.
Xing
X
Chen
State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure，Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, PR China.
Yong
Y
Yang
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, PR China.
Yong
Y
Zhang
Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Environmental Detection, Institute of Intelligent Machines, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, PR China.
Xing-Jiu
XJ
Huang
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, PR China; Anhui Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials and Devices, Hefei 230009, PR China. Electronic address: ycwu@hfut.edu.cn.
Yu-Cheng
YC
Wu
Fulvic acids; Graphene oxide; N-RGO/TiO(2) nanocomposites; Photocatalytic degradation; p-phenylenediamine