Photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B and methylene blue by electrochemically prepared nano titanium dioxide/reduced graphene oxide/poly (methyl methacrylate) nanocomposite

Composite of electrochemically prepared nano titanium dioxide/reduced graphene oxide/poly (methyl methacrylate) has been successfully synthesized. The homogeneous titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO 2 NPs) and reduced graphene oxide were prepared individually and composites of titanium dioxide nanoparticles/reduced graphene oxide (TiO 2 /RGO) in different ratios were then prepared under sonication. Nano titanium dioxide/reduced graphene oxide/poly(methyl methacrylate) (TiO 2 /RGO/PMMA) composite were prepared subsequently. The composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron dispersive spectrometer (EDS) for elemental analysis. Due to the long and great research interest as well as importance of developing new and efficient techniques in dyes degradation, methylene blue (MB) and Rhodamine B (RhB) were selected as two candidate to examine photocatalytic performance of the composites under 15 W UV-C lamp irradiation. Recovery of the TiO 2 /RGO/PMMA composite also revealed slight decrease in photocatalytic performance after four cycles.