Štengl et al. Chemistry Central Journal 2013, 7:41
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Open Access

TiO2-graphene oxide nanocomposite as advanced
photocatalytic materials
Václav Štengl1*, Snejana Bakardjieva1, Tomáš Matys Grygar1, Jana Bludská1 and Martin Kormunda2
Abstract
Background: Graphene oxide composites with photocatalysts may exhibit better properties than pure
photocatalysts via improvement of their textural and electronic properties.
Results: TiO2-Graphene Oxide (TiO2 - GO) nanocomposite was prepared by thermal hydrolysis of suspension withgraphene oxide (GO) nanosheets and titania peroxo-complex. The characterization of graphene oxide nanosheets
was provided by using an atomic force microscope and Raman spectroscopy. The prepared nanocomposites
samples were characterized by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area and Barrett–Joiner–Halenda porosity, X-ray
Diffraction, Infrared Spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy. UV/VIS diffuse
reflectance spectroscopy was employed to estimate band-gap energies. From the TiO2 - GO samples, a 300 μm thinlayer on a piece of glass 10×15 cm was created. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared layers was assessedfrom the kinetics of the photocatalytic degradation of butane in the gas phase.
Conclusions: The best photocatalytic activity under UV was observed for sample denoted TiGO_100 (k = 0.03012 h-1),
while sample labeled TiGO_075 (k = 0.00774 h-1) demonstrated the best activity under visible light.
Keywords: Graphene, Titanium(IV) oxide, Graphene oxide, Photocatalysis

Introduction
Traditionally, TiO2 is currently known as the most available and commercially cheapest photocatalyst. It has
been well documented that GO is heavily oxygenatedgraphene that is readily exfoliated in water to yieldstable dispersions consisting mostly of single-layer
sheets. The use of graphene oxide as the nanoscale
substrates for the formation of nonocomposites withmetal oxides is widely explored due to an idea to obtaina hybrid which could be combined both properties of
GO as fascinating paper-shape material and the featuresof single nano-sized metal oxide particles.
Recent studies concentrate on the preparation andapplications of GO modified photocatalyst because theirlarge specific surface area and high activity in mostcatalytic processes. Krishnamoorthy et al. [1] presented anarticle where photocatalytic characteristics and propertiesof graphene oxide were investigated by measuring the
reduction rate of resazurin into resorufin as a function of* Correspondence: stengl@iic.cas.cz
1
Department of Solid State Chemistry, Institute of Inorganic Chemistry AS CR
v.v.i., Řež 250 68, Czech Republic
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

UV irradiation time. The synthesis and physiochemical
characterization of titanium oxide nanoparticle-graphene
oxide (TiO2-GO) and titanium oxide nanoparticlereduced graphene oxide (TiO2-RGO) composites were
early provided and emphasized on the different synthetic
strategies for the preparation of graphene-TiO2 materials.
For example, TiO2-GO materials have been prepared via
the hydrolysis of TiF4 at 60°C for 24 h in the presence of anaqueous dispersion of graphene oxide (GO). The reaction
proceeded to yield an insoluble material that is composedof TiO2 and GO [2].
In an another strategy graphene oxide/TiO2 composites
were prepared by using TiCl3 and graphene oxide asreactants. The concentration of graphene oxide in starting
solution played an important role in photoelectronic
and photocatalytic performance of graphene oxide/TiO2composites. In this way either a p-type or n-typesemiconductive graphene oxide/TiO2 composites weresynthesized. These semiconductors were excited by visible
light with wavelengths longer than 510 nm and acted assensitizers in graphene TiO2 composites [3].
TiO2-Graphene Oxide intercalated composite has beensuccessfully prepared at low temperature (80°C) with© 2013 Štengl et al.; licensee Chemistry Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, andreproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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graphite oxide and titanium sulfate Ti(SO4)2 as initial
reactants. Graphite oxide was firstly exfoliated by NaOH
and formed single and multi-layered graphite oxide mixture which can be defined as graphene oxide, [TiO]2+
induced by the hydrolysis of Ti(SO4)2 diffused into
graphene oxide interlayer by electrostatic attraction [4].
Recently, Min et al. [5] presented a novel dye-sensitized
photocatalytic system for photochemical energy conversion employing reduced graphene oxide (RGO) as a catalyst scaffold and an efficient electron relay mediator
between photosensitizer and catalyst. Under visible lightirradiation (λ = 420 nm), the photocatalyst of Eosin Y
sensitized RGO with dispersed Pt nanoparticles exhibited
highly efficient activity for hydrogen evolution from water
reduction.
A new technique for producing of novel solventexfoliated graphene-TiO2 nanocomposites was published[6], which are then compared to previously reported
reduced graphene oxide-TiO2 nanocomposites in an effort to elucidate the role of graphene and its defects in thephotocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CH4. Another novel
method [7] was developed to synthesize graphite oxide/
TiO2 composites as a highly efficient photocatalyst by insitu depositing TiO2 nanoparticles on graphene oxide
nano-sheets by a liquid phase deposition, followed by acalcination treatment at 200°C.
In our previous work [8], we reported on nonstoichiometric TiO2-graphene oxide nanocomposite, which was
prepared by thermal hydrolysis of suspension withgraphene oxide nanosheets and titania peroxo-complex. It
should be mentioned that we are able to produce puregraphene nanosheets in large quantity from natural graphite by using high intensity cavitation field in the highpressure ultrasonic reactor. Graphene oxide sheets,
prepared by such safe and friendly method, can be used asa good support for TiO2 to enhance its photocatalytic activity. In this paper, we reported on an "one-pot" thermalhydrolysis of titanium peroxo-complexes in the presenceof graphene oxide in aqueous solution. Our "hydrogen
peroxide route" is based on hydrolysis of Ti(IV) sulfate,next treatment of the resulting gel by hydrogen peroxide,
and thermal decomposition of so formed peroxo-titanate
under reflux at ambient pressure producing directly the
TiO2-GO photocatalyst. The relative photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared thin layers of titania/graphene
nanocomposite in poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) was
assessed by the photocatalytic decomposition of butane
under UV and visible light.
Preparation TiO2 - GO nanocomposite

All chemical reagents used in the present experiments
were obtained from commercial sources and used without
further purification. Titanium oxo-sulfate TiOSO4, hydrogen peroxide H2O2, ethylene glycol OHCH2CH2OH andPage 2 of 12ammonium hydroxide NH4OH were supplied by SigmaAldrich. Graphene was produced in large quantity fromnatural graphite (Koh-i-noor Grafite Ltd. Czech republic)
using high intensity cavitation field in a pressure batchultrasonic reactor (UIP 2000hd, 20 kHz, 2000 W,
Hielscher Ultrasonics GmbH) [9].
Graphene oxide was prepared by our safety method, a
60 ml of H2SO4 and 10 ml of H3PO4, 1 g of graphene and3 g of KMnO4 were mixed in round bottom flask. The
reaction was then heated to 40°C and stirred for 6 hours
and pink squash suspension was obtained. Subsequently
was poured onto ice with 200 ml of 30% H2O2. The pinksquash suspension quickly changed to lemon-like yellow
suspension. The whole reaction product was purged bydialysis (Spectra/Por 3 dialysis membrane), washed withethanol and dried at 105°C.
In the typical procedure of TiO2 - GO nanocomposite
preparation, 100 ml of 1.6 M titanium oxo-sulfate(TiOSO4) was hydrolyzed by slow addition of ammonium hydroxide solution (10%) under constant stirring
at temperature of 0°C in ice bath. The stirring last until
the reaction mixture reaches pH 8.0. The obtained white
precipitate was separated by filtration. The consequent
depuration of sulfate ions from precipitate with distilledwater was confirmed by the BaCl2. The wet precipitateis mixed with 100 ml of 15% hydrogen peroxide solution;
thereby a yellow solution of titania peroxo-complex is
obtained.
Well defined quantity (see Table 1) of GO nanosheets
was dispersed using ultrasound in water, added to the yellow precursor of titania peroxo-complex and annealed ata heated mantle in a round-bottom flask with a reflux
cooler at 100°C for 48 hours. The originated blue TiO2 GO nanocomposite was filtered off and dried at 105°C.
Ten samples of TiO2-GO nanocomposites doped as
TiGO_XXX, where XXX are grams of GO, were prepared.
The prepared TiO2 - GO nanocomposite powder (2 g)
was dispersed in a mixture of 5 ml poly(hydroxyethyl
methacrylate) and 10 ml of ethanol. From this suspension,a 300 μm thin layer on a piece of glass, 100 × 150 mm wascreated.
Characterisation methods

Diffraction patterns were collected with diffractometer
PANalytical X´Pert PRO equipped with conventional
X-ray tube (Cu Kα radiation, 40 kV, 30 mA) and a linear
position sensitive detector PIXcel with an anti-scattershield. A programmable divergence slit set to a fixed valueof 0.5 deg, Soller slits of 0.02 rad and mask of 15 mm wereused in the primary beam. A programmable anti-scatter
slit set to fixed value of 0.5 deg., Soller slit of 0.02 rad and
Ni beta-filter were used in the diffracted beam. Qualitative
analysis was performed with the DiffracPlus Eva software
package (Bruker AXS, Germany) using the JCPDS PDF-2

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Table 1 Sample composition, crystallite size, BET a total pore volume of prepared samples
SampleGraphene oxide [g] Crystallite size [nm] Cell parameter a [Å] Cell parameter c [Å] BET [m2g-1] Total pore volume [ cm3g-1]

TiGO_001

0.005

49.6

3.7963(2)

TiGO_005

0.001

51.9

3.7968(4)9.5121(4)151.4

0.7846

TiGO_010

0.01

52.2

3.7970(2)9.5121(6)195.7

1.4668

TiGO_050

0.05

34.5

3.7970(3)9.5086(8)

185.7

0.623

TiGO_075

0.075

34.5

3.7973(2)9.5077(7)119.20.6501

TiGO_100

0.100

32.1

3.7973(6)9.5060(4)168.4

0.6687

TiGO_200

0.200

35.0

3.7971(4)9.5047(5)178.00.6247

TiGO_300

0.300

46.7

3.7954(5)9.5118(7)

78.9

0.618

TiGO_400

0.400

43.6

3.7954(2)9.5106(6)68.6

0.5545

TiGO_500

0.500

39.1

3.7955(6)9.5095(8)78.10.6089database [10]. For quantitative analysis of XRD patterns
we used Diffrac-Plus Topas (Bruker AXS, Germany, version 4.1) with structural models based on ICSD database[11]. This program permits to estimate the weightfractions of crystalline phases and mean coherence length
by means of Rietveld refinement procedure.
AFM images were obtained using an NTEGRA Aura
(NT-MTD) microscope. A sample of the diluted dispersion was placed on synthetic mica as an atomicallysmooth support and evaporated at room temperature.
The measurements were performed in air at room
temperature in non contact mode, with Si tips of the1650–00 type at resonance frequencies ranging from 180
to 240 kHz.
The morphology of sample powders was inspected bytransmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the crystal
structure was analyzed by electron diffraction (ED) using
a 200 kV TEM microscope JEOL 2010 F. As specimen
support for TEM investigations a microscopic copper
grid covered by a thin transparent carbon film was used.
The samples were studied in both bright field and byelectron diffraction with a selecting aperture (SAED)
mode at an acceleration voltage of 200 kV.
The surface areas of samples were determined from nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms at liquid nitrogentemperature using a Coulter SA3100 instrument with outgas 15 min at 150°C. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller(BET) method was used for surface area calculation [12],the pore size distribution (pore diameter, pore volume andmicropore surface area of the samples) was determined by
the Barrett–Joyner–Halenda (BJH) method [13].
The Raman spectra were acquired with DXR Raman
microscope (Thermo Scientific) with 532 nm (6 mW)
laser, 32 two-second scans were accumulated with laser
532 nm (6 mW) under 10× objective of Olympus
microscope.
Infrared spectra were recorded by using ThermoNicolet Nexus 670 FT-IR spectrometer approximately in
4000–500 and 500–50 cm-1, respectively, with single-

9.5144(5)100..20.6530reflection horizontal accessory on Si crystal. The samples
were mixed with KBr and pressed to conventional pellets
at ambient conditions and measured in the transmissionmode.
XPS apparatus was equipped with SPECS X-Ray XR50
(Al cathode 1486.6 eV) and SPECS PHOIBOS 100
Hemispheric Analyzer with 5-channels detector. A background pressure in XPS during the measurements wasunder 2×10-8 mbar. XPS survey-scan spectra were madeat pass energy of 40 eV; the energy resolution was set to
0.5 eV. While individual high-resolution spectra weretaken at pass energy of 10 eV with 0.05 eV energy steps.
A software tool CasaXPS was used to fit high-resolution
multi components peaks. The proper surface charge
compensation was done by fitting C-C, C-H componentof C 1 s peak to reference binding energy 284.5 eV. The
atomic concentration of compounds was evaluated withrelative sensitivity factors (RSF) defined in standard tableof CasaXPS software.
Diffuse reflectance UV/VIS spectra for evaluation ofphoto-physical properties were recorded in the diffuse
reflectance mode (R) and transformed to absorption
spectra through the Kubelka-Munk function [14]. A
Perkin Elmer Lambda 35 spectrometer equipped with aLabsphere RSAPE- 20 integration sphere with BaSO4 as
a standard was used. The reflectance data were obtained
as relative percentage reflectance to a non absorbing
material (BaSO4) which can optically diffuse light.
Kinetics of the photocatalytic degradation of butane(0.87%) was measured by using a home-made stainlesssteel batch photo-reactor [15] with a Narva black-lightfluorescent lamp at wavelength 365 nm and warm-whitefluorescent lamp at wavelength up to 400 nm (input
power 8 W, light intensity 6.3 mW cm-2). The gas concentration was measured with the use of Quadrupole Mass
Spectrometer JEOL JMS-Q100GC and gas chromatograph
Agilent 6890 N. A high-resolution gas chromatography
column (19091P-QO4, J&W Scientific) was used. Samples
were taken from the reactor automatically through theŠtengl et al. Chemistry Central Journal 2013, 7:41
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sampling valve (6-port external volume sample injector
VICI, Valco Instruments Co. Inc.) in a time interval of
2 hours.
Blank tests (a layer of poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate)
without titania) were performed in order to establish theeffect of photolysis and catalysis on the conversion of
butane. The UV irradiation detects that there was none
or immeasurable conversion of butane, as a testing gas,
into CO and/or CO2, and consequently neither butane
absorbed on the poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) matrix.
The injection volume of butane into the photoreactor
was 30 ml.

Results and discussion
Early published experimental XRD pattern of graphene
oxide demonstrated arising of strong 001 reflection peakat 2θ ~10° with a basal spacing of d001 = 6.33 Å [16]. We
calculated d-spacing of sample prepared during our experiment (see Figure 1a) such as GO d001 = 6.718 Å whichis in good agreement with published results [16,17].
The Figure 1b shows X-ray diffraction patterns of TiO2GO nanocomposites. All samples show only the anatase
phase (PDF 21–1272). Higher concentrations of GO(samples TiGO_300 and TiGO_400) probably lead toPage 4 of 12

partial reduction of GO to graphene and a weak peakat 2Θ = 26.50° appears (see arrow G). Nevertheless, theintensity of graphene X-ray lines is under possibility for
quality Rietveld refinement. Furthermore, in the positionat 2Θ ~ 10-12° (see arrow GO), there is an obvious hint of
GO peak, which is due to the small particle size and its
concentration featureless.
Crystallite size, a and c cell parameters of anatase,calculated by the Rietveld refinement procedure using
Topas v.4.2 programme, based on the full width at halfmaximum of the peak at 25.4° are presented in Table 1;
the crystallite size is in range from ∼ 32 to 52 nm. The cellparameters of pure anatase are a = 3.7845 Å and c =9.5143 Å; an increasing of lattice parameters a and c forthe titania/graphene oxide nanocomposite is expected tooccur if some of the Ti4+ are transformed to Ti3+, becauseof the larger ionic radius of Ti3+ (0.670 Å) compared to
Ti4+ (0.605 Å) [18].
Atomic force microscopy and electron transmission microscopy were used to determine quality of delaminationof graphene oxide (GO) used for preparation TiO2-GO
nanocomposite.
In our previously work we have been demonstrated thatthe thermal hydrolysis of titania peroxo-complex leads

Figure 1 a The XRD pattern of graphene oxide. b The XRD patterns of TiO2-GO nanocomposites, diffraction line a) TiGO_001, b) TiGO_005, c)
TiGO_010, d) TiGO_050, e) TiGO_075, f) TiGO_100, g) TiGO_200, h) TiGO_300, i) TiGO_400 and j) TiGO_500.

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to spindle-like particles [19]. Our experiments wereconfirmed that direct interaction between TiO2 nanoparticles and graphene oxide sheet prevents the reaggregation of the sheets of graphene oxide. The TEM
images of GO prepared by modified oxidation method ispresented in Figure 2a. It follows from the picture, that
GO formed big smooth plates of size ~ 5×5 μm. Figure 2b
shows TEM images of TiO2-GO nanocomposite anddemonstrates that TiO2 nanoparticles were dispersed uniformly on the graphene plane.
Figure 3 shows AFM images of GO with a thickness of
0.87 nm according to cross-sectional analysis, which iscomparable with the interlayer spacing 0.91 nm of GO
measured by X-ray powder diffraction (see Figure 1a).
These results indicate that the exfoliation of graphite
oxide down to monolayer sheets of GO is successfully
obtained [16].
The specific surface area of the prepared TiO2-GO
nanocomposites calculated by the multi-point BrunauerEmmett-Teller (BET) method and total pore volume arelisted in Table 1. A typical Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH)
pore-size distribution plot and nitrogen adsorption/
desorption isotherms are shown in Figure 4. According to

Figure 2 a) TEM images of graphene oxide (GO), b) TEM
images of TiO2-GO nanocomposite.

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IUPAC notation [20], microporous and macroporous
materials have pore diameters smaller than 2 and greaterthan 50 nm, respectively; the mesoporous category thus
lies in the middle. As for all the titania/graphene
nanocomposites, the isotherm form corresponds to that oftype IV isotherm classification and the type E hysteresis
loop is in agreement with the De Boer classification
attributed to mesoporous solids [21]. The maximum of
average pore size lies between 20 and 35 nm and all
prepared TiO2-GO nanocomposites have mesoporous
texture. With increasing content of GO in the composite
decreasing trend of specific surface area is obvious (seeTable 1). This may be due to agglomeration GO, which
occurs at higher concentrations. Graphene oxide nanosheets are coated with titania nanoparticles. Therefore
when the surface area of TiO2-GO nanocomposites ismeasured, its size is dominantly determined by surface
properties of anatase nanoparticles. For this reason, relatively low specific surface of the TiO2-GO nanocomposites (200 m2g-1) was found compared to thetheoretical value of the graphene and graphene oxide, respectively. Nevertheless mesoporous TiO2-graphene oxide
nanocomposites have specific surface area in interval ~80–200 m2g-1 being considerably larger than those of P25
and similarly prepared neat TiO2 particles without usinggraphene oxide.
Raman spectroscopy is a powerful tool to characterize
the crystalline quality of graphene or GO. Additional file
1: Figure S1 shows the Raman spectrum of GO. In case ofthermal hydrolysis of titania peroxo-complexes in thepresence of GO there is no reduction of GO. Due to thebluish coloration of samples can be assumed, on the contrary, that there is reduction of Ti4+ to Ti3+ [22]. However,if there is a reduction of Ti4+, somewhere an oxidationmust occur, and it is probably on the graphene skeleton infree positions of Π bonds. Following oxidation of graphene
due to reduction of Ti4+ corresponds to an increase of
intensity of Raman bands GO in the nano-composite
TiO2-GO.
In our Raman spectrum, the G band is broadened andshifted slightly to 1605 cm-1, whereas the intensity of the
D band at 1350 cm-1 increases substantially. Increased
background of the spectrum is caused by the sample
fluorescence. G band is common to all sp2 carbon forms
and provides information on the in-plane vibration of
sp2 bonded carbon atoms and the D band suggests thepresence of sp3 defects [3].
The Raman spectra of series nanocomposites TiO2-GO
is presented in Figure 5. The specific vibration modes arelocated at 144 cm-1 (Eg), 396 cm-1 (B1g), 512 cm-1 (B1g +A1g) and 631 cm-1 (Eg) indicating the presence of theanatase phase in all of these samples. The D bands of GO
are located at 1349 cm-1 and G band at 1601 cm-1. With
increasing concentrations of GO the intensity of bothŠtengl et al. Chemistry Central Journal 2013, 7:41
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Figure 3 AFM images of prepared graphene oxide.

bands also increases. The background of the sample labeled TiGO_075 is increased by the sample fluorescence.
High resolution XPS spectra were accumulated 10 times
to enhance the signal and to noise ratio, and arepresented in Figure 6. The composition of the TiO2-GO
nanocomposites was evaluated from the high resolution
spectra of O 1 s, C 1 s and Ti 2p. The compositions are
summarized in the Additional file 1: Table 1. The O/Ti
ratio was evaluated and the results show over stoichiometric values. The high O/Ti ratio can be partially explainedby the fact that the O1s spectra show a main peak at
529.7 eV with a shoulder at about ~531.4 eV. The peak at
529.7 eV is assigned to oxygen lattice, while the shoulder
may be attributed to oxygen in adsorbed hydroxyl groups.
The binding energy calibration was made on C-C component of C 1 s peak after a deconvolution process. The
intensity of C 1 s peak is rather small and the signal isnoisy, but the C 1 s peak was fitted by two main

components to represent C-C/C-H bond at binding energies about 284.5 eV and C = O bond at higher binding
energies about 288 eV. The C = O bond was expected because it is a part of the graphene oxide precursor. Furthermore,during reaction of Ti(SO4)2 with GO, plenty ofoxygen-containing groups, such as C = O located in theinterlayer of graphene oxide were consumed during thenucleation and growth of TiO2 crystallites, which meansgraphene oxide has been partly reduced [4]. The oxygencontaining groups on the graphene oxide can interact withtitanium hydroxide complex and the TiO2 nanoparticles,
resulting in hydrogen bonds between them [23].
The ratio between both bonds was almost identical on
both samples (about 73%) and had C-C/C-H character;therefore it can be expected that the carbon comes fromthe precursor rather then from additional contaminations.
The other expected bonds as O = C-OH and C-OH were
neglected because of the weak signal [24].

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Figure 4 Dependence of pore area on pore diameter and nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms of TiO2-GO nanocomposite.

The Ti 2p3/2 and Ti 2p1/2 were identified at binding
energies of 458.5 and 464.1 eV, respectively. The positionof Ti 2p peaks corresponds to the literature reported
values and also to the FWHM values about 1.6 eV for Ti
2p3/2 and 2.4 eV for Ti 2p1/2, which are reasonable forsingle peak character. The Ti is probably bonded in the
TiO2. The equal area/RFS ratios were found on both spinstates within precision about 10%. The limited precision isdue to the background removal process when the Shirley
background was used. The peak positions and the FWHM
were found to be practically identical for all investigatedsamples.
The Additional file 1: Figure S2 shows the IR spectrumof the TiO2-GO nanocomposite prepared by thermal hydrolysis of titania peroxo-complexes. The broad absorption peaks about 3427 cm-1, and the band at 1631 cm-1

correspond to the surface absorbed water and thehydroxyl groups [25]. The band at 1384 cm-1 can be
assigned to hydroxyl C-OH and that at 1258 cm-1 toepoxide C-O-C [26]. The band at 650 cm-1 is mostprobably related to the Ti-O vibration modes of the
Ti3+-O-Ti4+ framework [27].
The Additional file 1: Figure S3 presents the UV–vis
absorption spectra of the TiO2-GO nanocomposite. The
presence of different amounts of GO influences the opticalproperties of light absorption significantly. With increasing GO content in the nanocomposite light absorption
intensity in the UV region grows and a red shift to higher
wavelength in the absorption edge at about 400 nm also
observed [8]. Increased background in the area 400–
800 nm is caused by incorporation of GO into the matrixof TiO2 [28] and partially also by presence of Ti3+.

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Figure 5 The Raman spectra of TiO2-GO composites.

According to the equation for band gap:
αhv ¼ Bðhv  EbgÞ2

ð1Þ

where α = (1-R)2/2R, R is the reflectance of the "infinitely
thick" layer of the solid [29], B is absorption coefficientand hν is the photon energy in eV. Figure 7 plots the relationship of (αhν)1/2 versus photon energy (hν = 1239/λ)[30,31], which shows that the band gap of pure TiO2 is
3.20 eV, [32] whereas the band gap of the TiO2-GO
nanocomposite has been reduced from value 3.15 eV(sample TiGO_001) to value <2.50 eV for sample
TiGO_100. The band-gaps of samples TiGO_200 to
TiGO_500 are impossible to be identified because theabsorption edges for TiO2 entirely overlapped with thosefor GO.
The effect of oxidation time variation on the electronic,
physical and chemical properties of GO was investigatedand it was found that the bandgap of GO increased withoxygen content of the GO material [33]. GO has abandgap between 1.7 and 4.3 eV in dependence on the
preparation method, and it is tunable in the interval 1.9 –2.6 eV in the range of the visible spectrum as required for
efficient photocatalysis.
Graphene oxide is non-stoichiometric material, which
retains the lamellar structure of graphite. After treatmentin the presence of strong acids and oxidation agents, many
oxygen-containing groups such as carboxyl (C − OOH),
hydroxyl (C − OH), epoxide (C − O − C) become covalently attached to its layers surfaces. In our experiment
GO reacted in the presence of Ti-peroxo-complex, andsome functional group such as (− OH, -COOH) on the
GO surface
Q were removed. We can can suppose that some
unpaired − electrons bonded with the free electrons on
the surface TiO2 to form a Ti–O–C structure, which thenshifted up the valence band edge and reduce d the bandgap [34].
On another hand after the photoactivation of titanium
dioxide the electrons can easily transfer to the graphenenanosheets and photoinduced holes migrate into titania;
recombination of e- and h+ is strongly reduced, which
increases the process yield.
The photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared layered of
TiO2-GO nanocomposites were assessed from the kineticsof the photocatalytic degradation of butane in the oxygen
atmosphere. Photocatalytic oxidation of butane are basedon the following overall reactions [35]:
2C4 H10 þ13O2 →8CO2 þ10H2 O

ð2Þ

Before each measurement, the photocatalytic reactor isevacuated, then rinsed with the O2 and the measurement
is run. If the measured gas chromatogram shows only theoxygen peak at retention time 1.52 min then a gas for thephotocatalytic decomposition (in our case the butane) canbe injected. After measuring the subsequent chromatogram, peaks for the oxygen and the butane are marked
each by value of 1. The value of gases, which are expected
to be formed due to photo-activity of the TiO2-GO
nanocomposite (CO, CO2) are assigned each by value 0.
By this normalization of input data is performed and themeasurement with time period of 2 hours can be started.

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Figure 6 High resolution XPS spectra of TiO2-GO composites.

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Figure 7 Band-gap energy (hν) of TiO2-GO composites.

In a typical chromatograph of the effluent obtained frombutane photocatalytic degradation only oxygen, carbon
monoxide, carbon dioxide, water and butane weredetected at retention times of 1.52, 1.54, 2.41, 6.42 and9.53 min [27]. The normalized total ion current (TIC) for
CO, CO2 and H2O after time reaction 60 hours ispresented in Table 2.
The typic corresponding experimental dependencies ofbutane, oxygen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide intime are plotted in Figure 8. The rate of degradation was
estimated to obey pseudo-first-order kinetics, and hence
the rate constant for degradation k was obtained fromthe first-order plot according to equation (3),lnðc=c0 Þ ¼ kt

where c0 is the initial concentration, c is the concentration of butane after time (t), and k is the first-order rate
constant.
The photocatalytic degradation of butane was fitted bycurves of the first-order kinetics; the corresponding rate
constants are given in Table 2. Djeghri et al. [36]reported photoinduced oxidation of C2–C8 alkanes on
TiO2 at ambient temperature. In general, they observedthat alkanes (CnH2n+2) formed ketones (CnH2nO) andother aldehydes CmH2mO with 2 < m < n. If the alkane
was branched, the ketone was CmH2mO with 3 < m < n.
The reactivity of different types of carbon atoms
followed the sequence: Ctertiary > Cquaternary > Csecondary >Cprimary. Paper [8] shows, that in our case, the reactivityof butane is different and simpler – no intermediate

ð3Þ

Table 2 Rate constant k and TIC for CO, CO2 and H2O of TiO2-graphene oxide
Samplek 365 nm [h-1]

CO [TIC]

CO2 [TIC]

H2O [TIC]

k 400 nm [h-1]

CO [TIC]

CO2 [TIC]

H2O [TIC]

TiGO_000

0.02686

4.2

7.4

2.1

0.00959

7.2

8.1

2.3

TiGO_001

0.0158

3.7

9.1

0.8

0.00641

16.8

21.1

1.4

TiGO_005

0.01341

9.3

9.1

0.8

0.00451

9.5

12.8

0.8

TiGO_010

0.01356

10.5

11.4

0.7

0.00641

0.6

1.6

0.7

TiGO_050

0.02664

13.1

11.6

1.7

0.00774

1.7

4.7

0.2

TiGO_075

0.00911

8.9

10.6

2.1

0.00774

18.3

18.4

0.7

TiGO_1000.03012

9.3

7.5

1.7

0.00739

12.4

15.4

0.7

TiGO_200

0.01663

6.7

13.2

1.1

0.00705

13.8

20.4

0.6

TiGO_300

0.00751

19.6

20.5

3.5

0.00517

14.7

19.5

0.8

TiGO_400

0.00683

9.1

9.6

1.9

0.00566

6.6

5.5

1.5

TiGO_500

0.00621

8.2

8.5

0.9

0.00512

6.1

4.9

0.9

Štengl et al. Chemistry Central Journal 2013, 7:41
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Page 11 of 12

Figure 8 Typical experimental dependencies of C4H10, O, CO, CO2 and H2O in time.

products such as lower alkane or ketones were detectedin the gaseous phase. This means that photocatalyticoxidation proceeds not in the gaseous phase but only on
the layer surface directly, causing formation of CO, CO2
and H2O.
The results presented in Table 2 show, that thebest photocatalytic activity under UV and visible lighthave samples denoted TiGO_100 (k = 0.03012 h-1)
and TiGO_075 (k = 0.00774 h-1), respectively. As for the
TiGO_075 sample, there is also the largest increase in CO
and CO2 content. It is evident from Table 2 that for somesamples, there is also an increase in CO and CO2 at the expense of the primary decomposition of butane and thevalue for rate constant decreases. This suggests that inthese samples a much deeper mineralization occurs, whichleads to the preferential decomposition of intermediates to
end products of photocatalytic decomposition, i.e. CO2
and H2O. This increase in photoactivity for some samples
4+
3+
is probably
Q due to reduction of Ti to Ti and oxidationof free− bonds during preparation. The interaction of
CO2 molecules with the excited states of Ti3+-O- leads
to the formation of CO2•¯ anion radicals [37]. The
CO2•¯ anion radicals readily react with poly(hydroxyethyl
metacrylate), which leads to the formation of carbon
monoxide due to its strong adsorption on Ti sites of the
TiO2 surface [8]. The functions of the graphene oxide
sheets in the nanocomposite are as follows: i) graphene
oxide sheets provide a very good support substrate forthe deposition of TiO2 nanoparticles, ii) graphene oxide
sheets can enhance adsorption ability of the TiO2 - graphene
oxide nanocomposite, iii) Graphene oxide works as electron

acceptor and photosensitizer to efficiently enhance the butane
photodecomposition.

Conclusion
Using graphene oxide sheets as a substrate for TiO2, wedeveloped a simple ("one-pot") method to prepare nanocomposite by depositing TiO2 on the graphene oxidethrough liquid phase deposition.
The better photocatalytic properties on the TiO2-GO
nanocomposite systems irrespective of light sources could
be attributed to synergy effects including the increase in
specific surface area with graphene oxide amount as wellas to the formation of both π–π conjugations between
butane molecules and aromatic rings and the ionicinteractions between butane and oxygen-containing functional groups at the edges or on the surfaces of carbonbased nanosheets. Graphene oxide works as the adsorbent,
electron acceptor and photosensitizer and efficiently enhances the butane photodecomposition. The best photocatalytic activity under UV and visible light was observed
for samples denoted TiGO_100 (k = 0.03012 h-1) and
TiGO_075 (k = 0.00774 h-1), respectively. Both the usedsynthesis route and the GO modification are promising
ways to cheap and efficient photocatalysts for the Vis lightactivation.
Additional file
Additional file 1: Figure S1. The Raman spectrum of preparedgraphene oxide. Figure S2. IR spectrum of the TiO2-GO nanocomposite.

Štengl et al. Chemistry Central Journal 2013, 7:41
http://journal.chemistrycentral.com/content/7/1/41

Figure S3. UV–vis absorption spectra of the TiO2-GO. Table S1. C
Composition of nanocompsite base on XPS.

Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’ contributions
VŠ was the main author of the work, performed syntheses, and coordinatedall characterization and catalytic studies. SB was responsible for electron
microscopy, TMG for Raman spectroscopy, MK for XPS measurement, JB
assisted with manuscript writing. All authors read and approved the final
manuscript.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the RVO 61388980. The authors gratefully thankK. Šafářová (Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials,
Faculty of Science, Palacký University in Olomouc) for AFM and TEM
measurement.
Author details
Department of Solid State Chemistry, Institute of Inorganic Chemistry AS CR
v.v.i., Řež 250 68, Czech Republic. 2Department of Physics, Faculty of Science,
J.E.Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Ustí n. L 400 96, Czech Republic.
1

Received: 10 December 2012 Accepted: 13 February 2013
Published: 27 February 2013
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Cite this article as: Štengl et al.: TiO2-graphene oxide nanocomposite asadvanced photocatalytic materials. Chemistry Central Journal 2013 7:41.