Facile synthesis of defected TiO2-x (B) nanosheet/graphene oxide hybrids with high photocatalytic H2 activity
By Kong, Xiangchen; Huang, Huiming; Li, Zhaoyang; Liang, Yanqin; Li, Zhenguo; Zhu, Shengli
Published in Journal of Materials Science & Technology
2021
Abstract
TiO2 (B) nanosheets/GO (graphene oxide) hybrids are considered to be outstanding performance photocatalysts for high efficiency of H2 evolution. However, they still suffer severe challenges during the synthetic processes, such as a large amount of the capping agents adhering on the surface and easy occurrence of aggregation. To figure out these obstacles, Ar plasma treatment as a modified method in this study not only enable the TiO2 (B) nanosheets distributed uniformly on the GO sheets but also engineer defects within TiO2 (B) nanosheets to significantly improve the photocatalytic activity for the water splitting. The hydrogen evolution rate of the TiO2-x (B)/GO sheets is 1.4 times higher compared with that of original TiO2 (B)/GO sheets without Ar plasma treatment. The improved photocatalytic properties were owing to the synergetic effects of oxygen vacancies and the heterojunction between GO and TiO2 (B), which can promote the visible light utilization and accelerate separation and transportation of photogenerated electron-holes. This study can provide a facile pathway to prepare the two-dimensional hybrid photocatalysts with high photocatalytic H2 activity.