Abstract:
Water pollution poses a threat to the sustainability of the Earth’s ecosystem. In particular, the
textile industry has been shown to discharge effluents containing compounds that are toxic to plant and
animal life in aqueous environments. The dye materials in the effluent are broken down into various toxic
substances, such as amines and cyanides under anaerobic condition. Therefore, removal of these toxic
compounds is vital. In this regard, several studies are focusing on developing catalysts that can effectively
remove these pollutants from the contaminated water. This study mainly focusses on degradation of a
model dye, methyl orange (MO) by TiO2 loaded Graphene oxide (GO) materials. TiO2was loaded on the GO
material using two different methods, such as mechanical-mixing and impregnation methods. 1, 2, 5, 10,
and 20 % loadings of TiO2 was made on the GO material, and the resultant materials were characterized by
powder XRD method, which indicated the formation of amorphous TiO2 over GO material. The synthesized
materials were used to degrade a model dye, MO in the presence of visible light. Interestingly, 2 % TiO2
loaded on GO using both mechanical-mixing and impregnation was found to be highly efficient in degrading
methyl orange. In addition, a decrease in the rate of degradation was observed with increasing TiO2
loading, whereas only adsorption of dye was attained with bare GO. The high degradation efficiency with
the 2 % TiO2 loaded GO material may be attributed to the good dispersion of the active TiO2 nanoparticles
on to GO.
