Graphene oxide modified TiO<inf>2</inf> micro whiskers and their photo electrochemical performance

Harnessing the solar energy and producing clean fuel hydrogen through efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting has remained one of the most challenging endeavors in materials science. The core problem is to develop a suitable photo-catalyst material that absorbs a significant part of the solar spectrum and produces electron-hole pairs that can be easily separated without recombination. In the recent times, the composite of Titanium dioxide with graphene have been investigated to explore the advantages of both class of materials. Here we report on the photo-electrochemical properties of reduced graphene oxide functionalised TiO2 whiskers. The TiO2 whiskers are obtained from potassium titanium oxide (KTi8O16) synthesized through hydrothermal technique followed by ion exchange method and heat treatment. Graphene oxide was deposited on the as repared TiO2 whiskers using hydrothermal method. As formed samples were characterized by Raman pectroscopy to confirm the presence of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) attached to TiO2 whiskers. Comparative photo electrochemical studies were carried out for TiO2 and reduced graphene oxide modified TiO2 whiskers. Among these, RGO modified TiO2 whiskers show significantly higher photo current density possibly due to enhancement in charge separation ability and longer electron life times.