Fabrication Of Graphene/TiO2 Photocatalysts By Laser Pyrolysis For Ethylene Production
Résumé
In an effort to produce alkenes in a low-cost and less energy-consuming way, this work study the possibility of a photocatalytic process permitting to obtain ethylene from propionic acid.
To this end, TiO2 and graphene/TiO2 photocatalysts were successfully synthetized by an original method, the laser pyrolysis technique. Consisting on an interaction between a CO2 laser beam with liquid/gaseous precursors, this process provides great flexibility in terms of crystallinity, nanoparticles size etc. The obtained nanocomposites were mostly composed of anatase and graphene could be detected with RAMAN spectroscopy.
TiO2 and graphene/TiO2 were compared for ethylene photo-production from propionic acid, and ethylene yield did not seem to be significantly improved despite graphene addition.