Synthesis of Ag decorated graphene-hierarchical TiO₂ nanocomposite with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Abstract

Reduced graphene oxide (RGO) wrapped TiO 2 / Ag ternary nanocomposite was synthesized via a wet chemical method. The synthesized nanocomposite was characterized using UV-Vis spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The average size of RGO wrapped TiO 2 and deposited Ag nanoparticles were 3.2 μm and 48 nm, respectively. Due to the highly facilitated electron transport by the synergistic effect between RGO sheets and Ag nanoparticles, the TiO 2 / RGO / Ag nanocomposite exhibited a significant enhancement of photocatalytic activity towards degradation of methylene blue under UV light.