A two-dimensional layer of oxide reveals itself as a essential element to drive the photocatalytic activity in a nanostructured hybrid material, which combines high-quality epitaxial graphene and titanium dioxide nanoparticles. In particular, it has been revealed that the addition of a 2D Ti oxide layer sandwiched between graphene and metal induces a p-doping of graphene and a consistent shift in the Ti d states. These modifications induced by the interfacial oxide layer induce a reduction of the probability of charge carrier recombination and enhance the photocatalytic activity of the heterostructure. This is indicative of a capital role played by thin oxide films in fine-tuning the properties of heterostructures based on graphene and pave the way to new combinations of graphene/oxides for photocatalysis-oriented applications.
@article{arxiv.2305.06708,
title = {Interfacial two-dimensional oxide enhances photocatalytic activity of graphene/titania via electronic structure modification},
author = {Dario De Angelis and Francesco Presel and Naila Jabeen and Luca Bignardi and Daniel Lizzit and Paolo Lacovig and Silvano Lizzit and Tiziano Montini and Paolo Fornasiero and Dario Alfè and Alessandro Baraldi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.06708},
year = {2023}
}