Bottom-up construction of reduced-graphene-oxide anchored perovskite FeTiO3 and SnO2 and their synergy in photocatalytic activity under visible light

Perovskite FeTiO3 and SnO2 nanocrystals were synthesized adopting hydrothermal way, and were placed together in junction, the heterojunction FeTiO3-SnO2 was employed as substrate for the deposit of various reduced-graphene-oxide (rGO) mass ratios (x = 10, 15 and 20 %). XRD analysis illustrated that FeTiO3 has a perovskite crystal structure and SnO2 has a tetragonal one, after the rGO's deposit, the crystalline phases were conserved with an affecting of the crystal parameters, the structural quality of joined rGO to SnO2-FeTiO3 was studied by Raman spectroscopy. Additionally, SEM images demonstrated the heterojunctions' formation and the effective mixing of rGO with FeTiO3-SnO2. The electronic properties were studied by the photoluminescence spectroscopy; all analysis revealed that the structural and electronic properties are influenced by rGO's deposit. Furthermore, the heterojunctions were studied for their enhanced adsorptive and photocatalytic activities under visible light irradiation, finding an improvement after rGO deposit, which x = 15 % shows the highest combined adsorptive/photocatalysis performance.