One Pot Microwave Irradiation Synthesis of Spherical and Nanotube Titanates Incorporated Reduced Graphene for Efficient Hydrogen Production Photo-Electrocatalytically

Abstract Nanosphere and nanotube titanates (TNT) amalgamated with different graphene oxide (GO) ratios synthesized by one pot microwave irradiation route have presented excellent potential towards hydrogen production photoelectrochemically under solar irradiation. The hybrid nanospherical array of the 50TNT-50GO photocatalyst showed a current density equal 9.2 mA cm-2 at a bias of 0.20 V vs. RHE exceeding those of the nanotubes 30TNT-70GO (4.0 mA cm-2 at 0.38 V) and 10TNT-90GO (3.7 mA cm-2 at 0.4 V). The former electrode also exhibits small Tafel slope value (40 mV dec-1), decreased particle diameter (7 nm), decreased band gap (2.6 eV) and high rate of charges transfer. The hybrid structure elucidation carried out using TEM-SAED, XRD, N2 adsorption, UV-Vis, FTIR and PL techniques approved the interfacial interaction between TNT and GO(RGO) networks that was responsible for the high quantum yield, delay of charges recombination beside the increase in the pore volume.