Photocatalysis of TiO2 – Supported Graphene and Graphene Oxide Towards Phenol Degradation

Graphene oxide (GO) was prepared using modified Hummer`s method starting from graphite.  GO was impregnated on (i) commercial P25 TiO₂ (Ti) and (ii) mesoporous TiO₂ (mTi). The latter has higher surface area than the former one. After that, GOTi was reduced using (a) hydrogen gas at different temperatures or (b) hydrazine hydrate in microwave using a cyclic technique. Characterization of all used materials was carried out using bulk and surface techniques e.g. XPS, XRD, Raman Spectroscopy, FTIR, SEM, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance, BET, and cyclic voltammetry. The photocatalysis behavior of the synthesized GOTi, GOmTi, RGOTi and RGOTi were tested towards the phenol degradation and compared against the standard commercial P25 TiO₂ in presence and absence of H₂O₂ which was either (i) added to the reaction mixture or (ii) generated locally within the reactor .The study revealed that the TiO₂ – supported RGO and GO are showing much higher electrocatalytic performance above the P25 TiO₂. Table 1 shows the phenol degradation (60 ppm) after 6 h in presence of different volume of H₂O₂ over Ti, 0.2-GoTi and 0.1-GGO.