Enhanced photoelectrocatalytic activity for dye degradation by graphene-titania composite film electrodes

Graphene-titania composite film electrodes have been fabricated by a dip-coating method. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images show that the titania nanoparticles were dispersed uniformly, with only a little aggregation on the surface and edges of the graphene sheets. XRD analysis showed that the composite electrodes comprised the anatase phase of titania with just a little rutile phase. The photoelectrocatalytic activities of the as-prepared samples were investigated by studies of the degradation of Reactive Brilliant Red dye X-3B (C.I. reactive red 2). An enhancement of the photocurrents was observed using the graphene-titania composite electrodes, compared with pure titania film electrodes, under UV light irradiation. This improvement is attributed to the following two reasons: enhanced migration efficiency of the photo-induced electrons and enhanced adsorption activity of the dye molecules. In addition, we investigated the effects of graphene content and pH values on the photoelectrocatalytic activity of the as-prepared composite film electrodes. Results showed that there was an optimal amount of 5% (initial graphite oxide content).