Designing sustainable porous graphene-CaTiO3 nanocomposite for environmental remediation
D. Krishna Bhat, Harsha Bantawal, P.I. Uma, S. Pavan Kumar, U. Sandhya Shenoy
Abstract
In the pursuit of sustainable energy and environmental solutions, photocatalysis has emerged as a transformative technology, harnessing the power of light to drive chemical transformations. Among the myriad photocatalytic materials, calcium titanate (CaTiO3) stands out as a promising candidate, holding the potential to revolutionize the landscape of photocatalysis. To further improvise the efficiency of CaTiO3 in this work, porous graphene-CaTiO3 nanocomposite was synthesized by a straightforward solvothermal method and its photocatalytic activity was tested for the degradation of methylene blue dye under visible light. The synthesized sample exhibited 98.1% degradation in 40 minutes with excellent cyclic stability. Experimental and computational analysis attributed the enhanced performance to the strong chemical interaction of CaTiO3 cuboids with PG sheets via Ti-O-C bond which led to efficient electron hole separation leading to enhanced lifetime of the charge carriers. This along with reduced band gap and increased surface area made the material a potent photocatalyst for the degradation of dyes in short duration.