Designing sustainable porous graphene-CaTiO3 nanocomposite for environmental remediation

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 min 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.

Keywords

• Porous graphene nanocomposite
• Calcium titanate
• Photocatalysis
• Density functional theory
• Methylene blue dye degradation