Synthesis of cobalt doping titanium dioxide fiber supported by reduced graphene oxide for photocatalytic degradation of toluene in air

Abstract Titanium dioxide has been widely used for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in air, while problems like low utilization rate of sunlight and easy recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes are the main drawbacks for its application. In this study, a combination of Co doping and graphene supporting was used to synthesize cobalt doping titanium dioxide fiber supported by reduced graphene oxide (Co-TiO2/RGO) using processes including electrospinning, heating and freeze-drying. The structural and textural features of Co-TiO2/RGO were characterized by different techniques, and toluene was used as a model pollutant to test its photocatalytic performance. Results show that Co-TiO2 is uniformly dispersed in reduced grapheme oxide and the specific surface area of Co-TiO2/RGO is higher than that of TiO2 and Co-TiO2. Further, under the conditions of Co doping amount of 1%, calcination of 600℃ for 4 h, gas residence time of 100 min, relative humidity of 100%, and the Co-TiO2 loading amount of 1 g, the degradation percentage of toluene by Co-TiO2/RGO was the highest, up to 99.1%. This study confirms the possibility of synthesizing Co-TiO2/RGO for the degradation of organic pollutants in air.