Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (8): 1208-1216.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(19)63511-4

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One-step fabrication of TiO2/graphene hybrid mesoporous film with enhanced photocatalytic activity and photovoltaic performance

Junxiong Guoa, Yiyi Lia, Shangdong Lia, Xumei Cuib, Yu Liuc, Wen Huanga, Linna Maoa, Xiongbang Weia, Xiaosheng Zhanga   

  1. a State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, School of Electronic Science and Engineering(National Exemplary School of Microelectronics), University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, Sichuan, China;
    b College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610225, Sichuan, China;
    c Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology(TNList), Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
  • Received:2019-10-11 Revised:2019-11-16 Online:2020-08-18 Published:2020-08-08
  • Supported by:
    The authors acknowledge the financial supports of this work by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61804023, 61971108), the Key R&D Program of Sichuan Province (2018GZ0527), the Science and Technology Innovation Research Team Construction Project of Sichuan Province (2015TD00008) and the Key Projects of Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province (2017JY0038).

Abstract: We synthesized a mesoporous film based on TiO2-reduced graphene oxide (RGO) hybrids using a one-step vapor-thermal method without the need for an additional annealing process. The vapor-thermally prepared TiO2-graphene hybrid (VTH) features unique structures with an ultra-large specific surface area of ~260 m2 g-1 and low aggregation, giving rise to enhanced light harvesting and increased charge generation and separation efficiency. It was observed that a mesoporous film with uniform pore distribution is simultaneously obtained during the VTH growth process. When a 5.0 wt% RGO VTH film was used as the active layer in photocatalysis, the highest photocatalytic activity for degradation of methyl orange was achieved. For another, when a 0.75 wt% RGO VTH film was used as the photoanode in a dye-sensitized solar cell, the power conversion efficiency reached 7.58%, which represents an increase of 73.1% compared to a solar cell using an a photoanode of pure TiO2 synthesized by a traditional solvothermal method. It is expected that this facile method for the synthesis of TiO2/graphene hybrid mesoporous films will be useful in practical applications for preparing other metal oxide/graphene hybrids with ultra-high photocatalytic activity and photovoltaic performance.

Key words: TiO2-graphene hybrid, Catalytic activity, Photoanode, Vapor-thermal method, Mesoporous film