Facile in-situ synthesis of reduced graphene oxide/TiO2 nanocomposite: a promising material for the degradation of methyl orange

Titanium oxide (TiO2) and reduced graphene oxide-TiO2 (r-GO/TiO2) layered nano-composite were synthesized by the one step hydrothermal method. In this study, one step hydrothermal technique is adopted for the facile and in-situ synthesis of r-GO/TiO2 nano-composite. Crystal structure, surface morphology, chemical composition of TiO2 and r-GO/TiO2 layered nano-composite were investigated by Powder XRD, TEM, FT-IR, UV, and Raman spectroscopy. The unique feature of resultant r-GO/TiO2 nano-composite template is intercalation of TiO2 nanoparticles with well dispersion between graphene layers. The synthesized material was investigated for application in photocatalytic activity using UV light irradiation for degradation of methyl orange dye. The result shows that the(r-GO/TiO2) layered nano-composite effectively photodegrade methyl orange, showing almost double photocatalytic activity (similar to 1.82 times) in comparison to pristine TiO2 and commercially available TiO2 (P25).