TiO₂-Graphene Nanocomposites. UV-Assisted Photocatalytic Reduction of Graphene Oxide

Abstract

Graphene oxide suspended in ethanol undergoes reduction as it accepts electrons from UV-irradiated TiO(2) suspensions. The reduction is accompanied by changes in the absorption of the graphene oxide, as the color of the suspension shifts from brown to black. The direct interaction between TiO(2) particles and graphene sheets hinders the collapse of exfoliated sheets of graphene. Solid films cast on a borosilicate glass gap separated by gold-sputtered terminations show an order of magnitude decrease in lateral resistance following reduction with the TiO(2) photocatalyst. The photocatalytic methodology not only provides an on-demand UV-assisted reduction technique but also opens up new ways to obtain photoactive graphene-semiconductor composites.

Surface Engineering and Design Strategy for Surface‐Amorphized TiO2@Graphene Hybrids for High Power Li‐Ion Battery Electrodes

“…A thick and milky diffraction background can also be observed in the SAED pattern beside the TiO 2 diffraction rings, which suggests that the SA‐TiO 2 contains amorphous or disordered phases, consistent with the HRTEM observations. It is well‐known that graphene fabricated by the UV‐assisted technique has restored sp 2 networks and multiple available oxygen‐centered surface groups, which will allow unified connection between the GO and the exposed oxygen atoms at the surface of the TiO 2 nanoparticles 18. The SEM images in Figure 2d also clearly show that the uniform TiO 2 nanospheres with a size of ≈100 nm are well encapsulated by the graphene sheets.…”

One-step, solvothermal synthesis of graphene-CdS and graphene-ZnS quantum dot nanocomposites and their interesting photovoltaic properties

“…S-1, in the Electronic Supplementary Material (ESM)), which is very important to ensure the homogeneous growth of metal sulfide QDs on the surface of GNs, and c) EG has a strong ability to reduce GO into GNs at high temperatures [17]. It is now known that semiconductor nanoparticles interact with GO through its carboxylic acid functional groups [18]. However, the carboxylic acid functional groups are mainly located at the edge of GO [19] and may not be Scheme 1 Schematic illustration of the one-pot synthesis of GNs-MS QD nanocomposites, where M represents Cd or Zn, Ac is acetate, TU is thiourea, PAA is poly(acrylic acid) and EG is ethylene glycol.…”

“…Due to the promising charge transport properties of GNs [18,20], the GNs-CdS QD system is expected to have great potential for applications in fabricating photovoltaic devices, and further study on the charge transfer properties of the GNs-CdS QD system is thus of interest. We first studied the PL properties of the GNs-CdS QD composite.…”

Stability and Exfoliation of Germanane: A Germanium Graphane Analogue

“…1,2 For example, in a single layer of graphene electrons behave as massless Dirac fermions, resulting in potential applications for sensors, high mobility transistors, transparent conducting electrodes, and photocatalyst supports. [3][4][5] This has sparked much recent interest toward understanding how the bulk properties of other layered van der Waals bonded crystal structures (MoS2, WS2, Bi2Se3, BN, etc…) change when prepared as isolated individual sheets. 6,7 For example, bulk MoS2 normally has an indirect band gap at 1.29 eV, whereas isolated single layers of MoS2 have a direct gap (1.8 eV).…”