Degradation of Harmful Organics Using Visible Light Driven N-TiO2/rGO Nanocomposite

Nitrogen doped titania over reduced form of graphene oxide (N-TiO₂/rGO) catalysts were synthesized by adopting single step hydrothermal route. All the prepared photocatalysts were thoroughly characterized by using different analytical tools such as XRD, Raman, UV-DRS, FE-SEM and HRTEM. The photocatalytic activities of bare and composite catalysts were evaluated towards the photocatalytic decolourisation/degradation of Methylene blue dye (MB) and Metronidazole antibiotic (MTZ) under visible electromagnetic radiation. Among all the synthesized catalysts, N-TiO₂/rGO composite catalyst showed the highest decolourisation/degradation activity towards both the dye and the antibiotic. The most active catalyst was also tested under UV and solar light irradiations which showed promising results. The stability of the most active catalyst (N-TiO₂/rGO) was examined by recyclability test. The possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed for the composite catalyst.