Nanostructuring of a GNS-V2O5–TiO2 core–shell photocatalyst for water remediation applications under sun-light irradiation

Abstract

The GNS-V₂O₅–TiO₂ composite, as a new class of nanoarchitecture, has been successfully fabricated by a facile hydrothermal process followed by a sol–gel technique. Such a nanoarchitecture is made up of V₂O₅–TiO₂ core–shell nanorods, chemically anchored on graphene nanosheets (GNS). High-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy shows that these core–shell nanoparticles consist of core V₂O₅ nanorods of diameter 120 nm to 140 nm, covered by a TiO₂ shell of about 15 nm to 20 nm thickness. Large quantities of core–shell nanostructure materials are uniformly embedded on the surface of GNS. These new nanoarchitectures consist of two different kinds of metal oxides, that is V₂O₅ and TiO₂ which are electrostatically coupled with each other and decorated on the GNS by chemical bonding between C–Ti confirmed by Zeta potential analyzer and XPS studies, respectively. The sunlight-active photocatalytic properties of the GNS-V₂O₅–TiO₂ nanoarchitectures have been evaluated by photodegradation of acridine orange (AO) dye in an aqueous medium. The results show that the enhancement in the photocatalytic activity was attributed to the synergetic effect and also the chemical bonding leads to the interfacial charge transfer effect between GNS-semiconductor interfaces. It remarkably increases the spatial condition for charge transport and also increases the number of holes participating in the photodegradation process. This new nanoarchitecture exhibits an efficient photocatalytic activity and very high stability, holding great potential as a highly stable and reusable material for energy, water splitting, and environmental cleaning applications.