Exceptional removal of methylene blue and p-aminophenol dye over novel TiO<inf>2</inf>/RGO nanocomposites by tandem adsorption-photocatalytic processes

Abstract

Herein, a novel RGO/TiO2 nanocomposites were successfully synthesized via facile mechanical method for photocatalytic removal of methylene blue dye (MB) and p-aminophenol. The as-synthesized composites were characterized by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and N2-adsorption–desorption isotherms, Photoluminescence emission spectroscopy (PL) and UV–Vis spectroscopy techniques. The photocatalytic performance of the as-synthesized nanocomposites was explored through the degradation of MB in the presence of UV and natural sunlight. The sensitization of TiO2 with RGO exhibited efficient separation of the photoinduced charge carriers, slightly shifted the optical absorption edge towards the visible region and enhanced the photocatalytic activity under UV and natural sunlight irradiation. The dye photodegradation process follows a pseudo-first-order kinetics with respect to the Langmuir-Hinshelwood reaction mechanism. The most probable photocatalytic reaction mechanism has been proposed according to the obtained experimental results of this work.