Hydrothermal assisted synthesis of titanium dioxide nanoparticles modified graphene with enhanced photocatalytic performance

Water purification is a global issue, and most traditional methods have several drawbacks. As a result, new methods and materials must be devised to address the problem of water filtration. The hydrophobic TiO₂-ZnO/rGO has been synthesized via single-step hydrothermal methods for the efficiency and effective indigo carmine (IC) solution degradation. The characterization of hydrophobic TiO₂-ZnO/rGO has shown that the material has a high contact angle value of around 103.6°. Several photocatalytic parameters, pH of IC solution, the dosage of catalyst, and light intensity, were optimized for obtaining the highest degradation efficiency. The results of the photocatalytic study showed that the IC dye degradation process was controlled by superoxide anion radical (∙O₂^- radicals) to produce more specific products. Modifications with hydrophobic compounds such as hexamethyldisilizane (HDMS) showed that they could increase the photocatalytic properties and reusability of the material with a degradation percentage value of up to 95% with a constant rate of 0.0361 min⁻¹. Based on these results, this material has the potential to be further developed for micro and complex photodegradation and self-cleaning materials.