Reduced graphene oxide (rGO)–supported mixed metal oxide catalysts for photocatalytic reactions

Abstract Graphene is one of the allotropes of carbon which possesses fascinating properties such as high surface area, planar structure, high chemical stability, greater electron mobility, and conductivity. Because of its fascinating properties, it has been considered as a promising supporting material to synthesize different functional materials for various applications. However, it has been used widely in metal oxide semiconductor photocatalysis for solar energy conversion and environmental remediation applications. Introduction of graphene as solid support along with semiconductor metal oxide photocatalysts greatly enhances the rate of photocatalytic reactions due to its high electron mobility and conductivity. During photocatalysis, the photogenerated electrons are rapidly migrated to graphene support from metal oxide photocatalysts owing to the conduction band work function matching of both metal oxides and graphene. In this chapter, we discuss and summarize the significant advances of grapheme-supported mixed metal oxides in different photocatalytic applications especially photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants and H2 production.