The degradation of bisphenol-A organic pollutant using the dispersal of TiO nanorods onto the partial reduction of graphene oxide nanosheets.

The notion of innovative combinations of semiconducting metal oxides for photocatalytic destruction is a key factor in the removal of environmental contaminants. However, for the first time, the combination was made possible for the aforementioned reason by embedding one-dimensional titanium dioxide (TiO) semiconductor nanorods on two-dimensional rGO (reduced graphene oxide) nanosheets utilizing hydrothermal and a modified Hummers' method. By applying several sophisticated procedures, the properties of these catalysts were found, and then the degradation of BPA (bisphenol-A) was examined with UV and visible light sources. Further, all the analyses were performed on pure TiO material. As a result of the synergistic interaction between TiO and rGO, the rGO-TiO catalyst produced a favorable photocatalytic outcome. The structural investigation of rGO-TiO has confirmed that the TiO was in anatase phase along with GO and rGO peaks, and the morphological characterization showed that the TiO nanorods were integrated randomly into the rGO nanosheets along with defective sites. Also, adding rGO to TiO causes charge separation, and π-π interactions to improve the visible light absorption range. In this study, the main model organic component in the photocatalytic degradation is bisphenol-A (BPA). During visible light irradiation, the OH radicals were finally produced by the redox reactions. Furthermore, the rGO surface adsorbs the phenol molecules due to graphene π-π interactions, thus narrowing the band gap and increasing the efficiency of BPA degradation.