EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF Ag/TiO2/rGO BASED HYBRID NANOCOMPOSITES AS AN EFFICIENT HER CATALYST VIA ARTIFICIAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Abstract

This research investigates the synthesis and evaluation of Ag/TiO2/r-GO to enhance the efficiency of solar cells. Ternary hybrid nanocomposite was prepared by the sol-gel method without any toxic agent. For the preparation of ternary nanocomposite, Ag and TiO 2 were prepared by sol-gel technique while graphene oxide (GO) was prepared by modified Hummer’s method and reduced to reduce graphene by reduction of graphene oxide. Under the Sol-gel condition, deionized water was used as a green reducing agent. To compare the performance of ternary hybrid nanocomposite of Ag/TiO2/rGO with pure TiO2 and binary nanocomposite of TiO2/rGO various techniques e.g. SEM, UV-Visible spectroscopy, and Raman Spectroscopy. Crystal size of Ag/TiO2/rGO was decreased to 8nm compared to 12nm size of pure TiO2 . The combination of Silver over titanium-dioxide enhanced the photocatalytic activity of a solar cell. A hybrid nanocomposite of Ag/TiO2/rGO showed the synergistic effect between Ag, TiO2 and rGO and increases the wide photocatalytic spectrum of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). For HER nanocomposites of Ag/TiO2/rGO catalyst delivered high current density three times more than pure TiO2 and two times more than silver nanoparticles. Photocatalytic activity and hydrogen generation was increased by charge transfer heterojunction and enhanced charge separation and degrading efficiency up to 98%. As water molecules absorbed on silver nanoparticles, HER catalytic activity of Ag/TiO2/rGO was discussed that there was delayed in electron hole pair’s recombination rate shown by visible light. Photo engendered electrons and holes move in reverse direction of reduce graphene oxide as well as Ag NPs has been enhanced the activity of photocatalytic H2 generated from Water.