Highly dispersive nano-TiO2 in situ growing on functional graphene with high photocatalytic activity

We present a novel approach to prepare highly dispersive nano-TiO2 by in situ growth on functional graphene (FG) via impregnation-hydrothermal method. The functional graphene was obtained by means of triethanolamine to modify graphene oxide. The characterization results collected by Fourier-transform infrared spectra, transmission electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed that nano-TiO2 particles with anatase phase and a narrow size distribution (the average particle size is 5 nm) were dispersed on the surface of FG uniformly. Then, the photocatalytic activity of as-prepared catalyst under UV light was evaluated, and the results showed that it possessed better photocatalytic activity than pure TiO2 and TiO2 on GO prepared by similar method. In addition, the as-prepared photocatalyst revealed considerable photocatalytic ability under visible light.