Superior photocatalytic performance of reduced graphene oxide wrapped electrospun anatase mesoporous TiO2 nanofibers

Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) wrapped with anatase mesoporous TiO2 nanofibers (TNFs) were synthesized, by using the electrospinning technique along with easy chemical methods. The structural and morphological results demonstrate the success of wrapping of nanofibers with rGO. Wrapping with rGO leads to an efficient photogenerated charge carrier separation across the interface of rGO and TNFs. As a result, the photocatalytic activity of the composites is enhanced to 96% compared to only 43% for TNFs alone, in the photo degradation of methyl orange. This simple synthetic method can be applied not only to wrap rGO over other nanostructures of different morphology, but also for enhancing the properties of multifunctional materials. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.