TiO₂ nanofibers coated with rGO and Ag₂O for promoting visible light photocatalytic performance

Due to the increase in environmental pollution, highly efficient photocatalysts with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity have attracted considerable attention. In this work, TiO₂/reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/Ag₂O nanoheterostructures (NHs) based photocatalysts are successfully synthesized and a markedly higher visible light photocatalytic activity is achieved, of which at least 96% of Rhodamine B (RhB) molecules are decomposed by the TiO₂/rGO/Ag₂O NHs after 120 min visible light irradiation, but only 30% of RhB molecules are decomposed by pure TiO₂ nanofibers (NFs). Furthermore, the influence of rGO volume ratio in TiO₂/rGO/Ag₂O NHs photocatalysts on visible light photocatalysis is studied, and the result shows that the sample with 5 vol% rGO exhibits the highest visible light photocatalytic activity. The much enhanced visible light photocatalytic performance of the ternary TiO₂/rGO/Ag₂O NHs can be ascribed to the intense visible light absorption of Ag₂O, the excellent electron conductivity of 2D rGO and the matched energy level of TiO₂, Ag₂O, and rGO, for efficient boost of the photogenerated charge carriers transfer and separation at the interface of hierarchical TiO₂/rGO/Ag₂O NHs.