J. Mater. Sci. Technol. ›› 2015, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (8): 840-844.DOI: 10.1016/j.jmst.2015.01.011

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Facile Preparation of TiO2 Nanoclusters on Graphene Templates for Photodegradation of Organic Compounds

Zaixing Jiang1, 2, 4, Mingqiang Wang1, 4, Hao Cheng1, Jun Li1, Aslan Husnu2, Haibao Lv3, Yongtao Yao3, Lu Shao1, Yudong Huang1, *, Mingdong Dong2   

  1. 1 Department of Polymer Science and Technology, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China; 2 Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark; 3 Science and Technology on Advanced Composites in Special Environments Laboratory, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China
  • Received:2014-11-01 Online:2015-08-20
  • Contact: * Corresponding author. Prof., Ph.D.; Tel./Fax: t86 451 86414806.E-mail address: huangyd@hit.edu.cn (Y. Huang).
  • Supported by:
    The authors acknowledge financial support from iNANO through the Danish National Research Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China to the Sino-Danish Center of Excellence on “The Self-assembly and Function of Molecular Nanostructures on Surfaces”, the Carlsberg Foundation, and the Villum Foundation. Z. Jiang and Y. Huang acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51003021), China Postdoctoral Science Special Foundation (Nos. 201003420 and 20090460067), UTC Exploration Project (CASC-HIT12-1C03), Opening Project of Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Resource Recycle, Ministry of Education (12zxgkI0) and Harbin City Science and Technology Projects (2013DB4BP031). The authors thank the TEM work by Guojian Cao from School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, China.

Abstract: Graphene is the most attractive carbon-based material at present and attracting increasing attention as promising candidates for applications in numerous areas, because of its extraordinary chemical, thermal and mechanical properties. In this paper, we discussed an innovative and simple method to synthesize titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoclusters, using graphene as a mid-step template not as a component of final product. Using this method, the graphene was firstly fully coated with TiO2 nanoparticles by the thermal decomposition of titanium (IV) isopropoxide in a supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) at 200 °C; the developed TiO2/graphene composites then were heated in an oxygen atmosphere. Eventually the TiO2 nanoclusters were obtained. The prepared TiO2 nanoclusters showed irregular features with high surface coverage, providing promises in a wide range of applications, especially for photo-degradation of organic compounds in aqueous solution under the radiation of UV-light.

Key words: Titanium dioxide, Graphene, Supercritical CO2, Nanocluster