Application of titanium dioxide-graphene composite material for photocatalytic degradation of alkylphenols

Titanium dioxide-graphene (tiog) composite was used for the photodegradation of alkylphenols in wastewater samples. the tiog composites were prepared via sonochemical and calcination methods. the synthesized composite was characterized by x-ray diffraction (xrd),infrared spectroscopy (ir),scanning electron microscopy (sem),transmission electron microscopy (tem),energy dispersive x-ray analysis (edx),and fluorescence spectroscopy. the photocatalytic efficiency was evaluated by studying the degradation profiles of alkylphenols using gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (gc-fid). it was found that the synthesized tiog composites exhibit enhanced photocatalytic efficiencies as compared to pristine tio the presence of graphene not only provides a large surface area support for the tiophotocatalyst,but also stabilizes charge separation by trapping electrons transferred from tio thereby hindering charge transfer and enhancing its photocatalytic efficiency. © 2013 chanbasha basheer.