Enhanced photocatalytic activity based on TiO2 hollow hierarchical microspheres/reduced graphene hybrid

A novel TiO2 hollow hierarchical microspheres/reduced graphene oxide (TiO2 HHMs/rGO) hybrid was prepared by a facile and efficient two-step solvothermal synthesis method. The TiO2 HHMs with the size similar to 500 nm were uniformly distributed on the surface of rGO nanosheets. The as-prepared TiO2 HHMs/rGO hybrid is stable and exhibits a significantly higher photocatalytic activity (97.8%) for 40 ml of 10 mg/Rhodamine B (RhB) solution than that of the pure TiO2 microspheres (75.2%) and Degussa P25 (53.6%). The rGO nanosheet acts as a microelectrode for rapid accepting and separating the photogenerated electron on surface, which effectively slow the recombination rate of electrons and holes, and then effectively enhance the photocatalytic activity of the hybrid. The as-prepared novel TiO2 HHMs/rGO hybrid shows great promising for practical photocatalytic applications.