Affiliation:
1. Nanostructure Lab, Department of Physics The Gandhigram Rural Institute – Deemed to be University Gandhigram 624 302, Tamil Nadu India
Abstract
AbstractUnderstanding synergistic interface features is a crucial step towards adjustable and controllable interfaces for photocatalytic and photovoltaic devices. In this work, a novel layer‐structured rGO hybrid with SrTiO3 (STO/rGO) based binary composite has developed via hydrothermal method. The highly stable STO/rGO is used to construct a dual‐functional platform for dye, antibiotic degradation and DSSC. The photocatalytic activities of STO/rGO composites were examined using Methylene Blue (MB) and Tetracycline (TC) degradation in an aqueous solution under white light irradiation. The catalyst containing STG‐3 exhibited outstanding photocatalytic degradation efficiency of 93.06 % and 95.23 % toward MB and TC, respectively. In addition, the hybrid composites‐based photoanode had the most outstanding efficiency of 3.74 % with an increase in JSC. The performance is far better than pristine STO. The improved efficiency is ascribed to the strong interconnectivity, excellent crystallinity, higher surface area and high porosity, which results in reduced interfacial charge recombination loss, outstanding dye adsorption and better electron transport. Furthermore, a predicted mechanism is provided to explain the higher performance of STO/rGO hybrid composites.