Functional graphene sheets-TiO₂ nanocomposites and their photocatalytic performance for wastewater treatment

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In this paper, a powerful photocatalyst based on carbon nanocomposite is developed in order to obtain a new material applicable in water treatment and especially for the discoloration of effluents used in the textile industry. For that, TiO₂-graphene nanocomposites have been successfully synthesized by a mixture of Functionalized Graphene Sheet (FGS) and tetrachlorotitanium complexes to form FGS-TiO₂ nanocomposite. In the presence of an anionic surfactant, we used a new chemical process to functionalize graphene sheets in order to make them an excellent medium for blocking and preventing the aggregation of TiO₂ nanoparticles. The components of these nanocomposites are characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), which confirms the successful formation of the FGS-TiO₂ nanocomposite. It was found that the TiO₂ nanoparticles were dispersed uniformly on the graphene plane which possesses better charge separation capability than pure TiO₂. The FGS-TiO₂ nanocomposites exhibited higher photocatalytic activity compared to pure TiO₂ for the removal of three dyes: such as Methylene Blue (MB), Bromophenol Blue (BB) and Alizarin Red-S (AR) in water. The removal process was fast and more efficient with FGS-TiO₂ nanocomposite in daylight (in the absence of UV irradiation) compared to pure TiO₂ nanoparticles without and under UV in all pH range.