Fabrication of titanium dioxide/reduced graphene oxide nanofibers for photodegradation of tartrazine dye in aqueous solution

Titanium dioxide/reduced graphene oxide composite nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning technique. The nanofibers have been prepared by optimizing the ratio of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) to titanium dioxide (TiO2). The morphological, structural and optical properties have been studied by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and UV???Vis spectrophotometry. The surface area has been measured using Brunauer???Emmett???Teller method. The photocatalytic efficiency has been detected by the degradation of tartrazine dye under visible light. The results present that the degradation efficiency reaches 92% for the nanocomposite under visible light. However, the degradation efficiency was 10% for TiO2 only. Moreover, the prepared nanofibers have acceptable stability for several times use. The high efficiency of prepared nanofibers is due to the presence of rGO which improves the photocatalytic activity of nanofibers to degradation of harmful pollutant in water.