[10p-S203-1~21] 6.3 Oxide electronics

▲ [10p-S203-10] Influence of graphene quality on the photocatalytic performance of
TiO₂-graphene composite

〇(D)Rahul Deeliprao Deshmukh¹, Yu Kanda¹, Mitsuhiro Honda¹, Yo Ichikawa¹ (1.Nagoya Inst. Tech.)

Keywords:TiO2, Graphene, Photocatalyst

Carbonaceous materials incorporated into TiO₂ photocatalyst have made significant contributions to their photocatalytic enhancement owing to their favorable physical and electronic properties. Among these materials, a graphene sheet which is a monolayer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb network gives large surface area, high chemical stability, and superior electrical conductivity [1, 2]. It has been reported that graphene-containing nanocomposites contribute to improving the light absorption and the adsorption of reactants and extending the charge carrier lifetime of TiO₂. However, there are very few studies that demonstrate the effect of graphene properties such as surface area, crystallinity grain boundaries, number of defects, etc., on the photocatalytic performance of TiO₂. Here we prepared nanocomposites of TiO₂–graphene (TGR) with the aim of understanding the effect of surface area and grain boundaries of graphene on the photocatalytic performance of TiO₂. TiO₂ thin film was prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering and subsequent annealing. Partially as well as fully covered graphene sheets were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on a copper foil and then transferred on the TiO₂ thin film and single crystal (SC) anatase TiO₂ using PMMA. From fig 1 (b), it can be observed that all graphene-containing composites show higher photocatalytic activity compared to bare TiO₂ film and single crystal. It should be noted that photocatalytic activity is further enhanced when fully covered graphene (TGR2) is transferred onto TiO₂ thin film and SC TiO₂. We expect the surface area, as well as grain boundaries of graphene, affects the photocatalytic activity of TiO₂.