A Facile Synthesis of Ag/TiO2/rGO Nanocomposites with Enhanced Visible Light Photocatalytic Activity

Abstract

Ag/TiO 2 /rGO (silver/titanium-dioxide/reduced graphene oxide) photocatalysts were synthesized by a facile method that without using any inorganic or organic reducing agents.In this research, supercritical water was used as green reducing agent under the hydrothermal condition.The performance and characterization of nanocomposite materials were verified by various measurements: TEM, FTIR, XPS and DRS.Compared with pure TiO 2 and TiO 2 /rGO, newly synthesized material of Ag/TiO 2 /rGO photocatalyst performed a significantly increased absorption in the range of visible light and improved photocatalytic activity.The interaction between anatase nanoparticles and rGO sheets partially contributed to this result due to the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of silver nanoparticles.This work gives a promising methodology for new materials to develop a new TiO 2 -based photocatalyst with high solar absorption and enhanced catalytic activity.