Single-step hydrothermal synthesis of wrinkled graphene wrapped TiO2 nanotubes for photocatalytic hydrogen production and supercapacitor applications

Abstract

Herein, we discuss the synthesis of reduced graphene oxide and TiO2 (rGO-TiO2) nanocomposites with varying ratios of rGO to TiO2 by hydrothermal method. Photocatalytic ability of the nanocomposites was assessed for H2 production under natural sunlight. At 5 wt% GO loading, the rGO-TiO2 exhibited 24,880 μmol/g/h H2, 12.9 times to commercial P25-TiO2 (1920 μmol/g/h). The symmetric supercapacitor device fabricated using rGO-TiO2 demonstrated 160 F/g specific capacitance with 99% retention. The efficient charge carrier separation and transportation between TiO2 nanotubes and rGO resulted high photocatalytic activity. The synergistic double layer pseudo capacitor behavior of rGO-TiO2 is the reason for improved specific capacitance.