Journal
APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE
Volume 449, Issue -, Pages 772-779Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2018.01.282
Keywords
Titanium dioxide; Copper ferrites; Reduced graphene oxide; Photocatalyst; Hydrogen evolution; Nanocomposite
Categories
Funding
- Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), New Delhi, India [103/239/2015-NT]
- Science and Engineering Research Board Department of Science and Technology (SERB-DST), New Delhi, India [EMR/2014/000645]
- Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TET Fund), Nigeria
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Reduced graphene oxide supported CuFe2O4-TiO2 p-n heterojunction nanocomposite was prepared via ultrasound assisted simple wet impregnation method. The nanocomposites were characterized, by XRD, FTIR, Raman Spectra, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, UV-vis, DRS Spectra, and PL Spectra. The optical band gap of rGO/CuFe2O4-TiO2 nanocomposite was found to be red shifted to 1.51 eV from 3.20 eV for pristine TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs). The photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared rGO/CuFe2O4-TiO2 nanocomposite was determined via photocatalytic water-splitting in the presence of glycerol as hole scavenger under UV-vis light irradiation. A peak hydrogen production rate of 35981 mu molg(-1) h(-1) was obtained, which is similar to 8 and 3 times higher than that of bare TiO2 (4640 mu molg(-1) h(-1)) and CuFe2O4-TiO2 photocatalysts (14719 mu molg(-1) h(-1)), respectively. This remarkable improvement in the photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the enhanced visible light absorption and efficient charge carrier separation at the interface of rGO/CuFe2O4-TiO2 nanocomposites. A significant quenching of photoluminescence intensity of the rGO/CuFe2O4-TiO2 nanocomposite further confirmed the effective separation and transportation of photogenerated charge carriers in the presence of rGO sheet. A double charge separation and transportation mechanism is proposed for the enhanced photocatalytic activity. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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