Facile fabrication of titanium dioxide/fullerene nanocomposite and its enhanced visible photocatalytic activity

Titanium dioxide (TiO2)/fullerene hybrid nanocomposite was facilely fabricated by mixing TiO2 and poly-carboxylic acid functionalized fullerene under an ultrasonication-evaporation method. It was found that the TiO2/fullerene composite could serve as an efficient and reusable photocatalyst for degradation of rhodamine B dye under visible light (λ>400 nm). The as-prepared photocatalyst was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and diffuse reflection spectroscopy (DRS). The degradation experiments revealed that the photocatalytic activity strongly depends on the contents of fullerene from 0.5% to 3% mass ratio. The incorporation of fullerene into TiO2 efficiently extended the absorption spectrum of photocatalyst to visible light region, enhanced the adsorption capacity and degradation efficiency, resulting from a synergistic effect of fullerene and TiO2. The trapping experiments demonstrated that both the photo-generated hole (h(+)) and the reactive oxygen species such as superoxide anion radical (˙O2(-)) were involved in the photocatalytic reaction.