Inexpensive Sol Gel Synthesis of Highly Active and Environmentally Benign Expanded Graphite/TiO2 Hybrid Photocatalysts

A simple sol-gel technique for the synthesis of expanded graphite-TiO2 (EG/TiO2) hybrids as environment friendly photocatalyst is presented in this study. Inexpensive TiO2 precursor TiOCl2 and relatively inexpensive form of conjugated carbons (expanded graphite) were used for obtaining EG/TiO2 hybrid systems with various content of EG. Synthesized materials were characterized by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis (BET), Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques and effects of graphite content on the structure, crystallinity, morphology, chemical state, photocatalytic performance and cell proliferation properties were investigated and discussed. Prepared hybrids showed excellent photocatalytic activity and minimum cell proliferation towards human skin keratinocytes (HaCaT).