Rahmatollah Rahimi
Iran Universty of Science and Technology, Iran
Title: Photocatalytic properties of TiO2-Graphene nanocomposite as a 2D polymer photosensitized with porphyrin
Biography
Biography: Rahmatollah Rahimi
Abstract
To use the visible light in photodegradation reactions efficiently, graphene–TiO2 nanocomposite (TG-3%) was photosensitized using tetrakis (4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin. To investigate the effect of graphene as well as dye sensitization on the photoactivity of the synthesized photocatalyst, photocatalytic properties and photocurrent responses of the prepared samples were examined under visible light irradiation. Defect-free graphene has an infinite number of repetitive elements, with the smallest being any of its sp2-hybridized carbon atoms, whose one p orbital and three sp2 orbitals are filled with one electron each. These carbon atoms correspond to the smallest repetitive chain segments representing the repeating units of common linear polymers. The 1.6-fold increase of the photocurrent response in the graphene–TiO2 nanocomposite photosensitized using porphyrin (TGP) compared to the graphene–TiO2 nanocomposite provides an evidence for the effective influence of the porphyrin photosensitizer in the enhancement of the visible light photoactivity. The porphyrin photosensitizer in the TGP photocatalyst can enhance visible light absorption due to its ability to capture a broad range of the solar spectrum. Thus, porphyrin acts as a light-harvesting agent and is capable of producing photoinduced electrons and holes. Therefore, the largest shift in the visible light range was observed for the TG-3% nanocomposite photosensitized with porphyrin