Not long ago, a kind of tungsten trioxide - graphene photocatalyst has been developed; this catalyst can degrade the dye Rhodamine B almost completely in 15 minutes. This is much faster than the degradation times that the single ingredient of tungsten trioxide or titanium dioxide photocatalyst can be achieved. This kind of photocatalyst is jointly discovered by Chinese and American scientists, and also, they imagined that this enormous potential invention shall be used in the visible light degradation of dye pollutant.

 

Because of the porous structure and special composition, the discovered tungsten trioxide - graphene photocatalyst has shown an excellent performance. The tungsten trioxide nano-framework can efficiently absorb the visible light due to multiple reflections in the pores. Also, the generated charges will quickly transfer to the graphene, thus to avoid the charge recombination. In addition, graphene nanosheets exposed on the surface of the photocatalyst, which guarantees the π-π contamination between graphene and dye pollutant, and thus lead to high absorption rate of catalyst material on the substrate. These combined features enhance the degradation of dye pollutants by the photocatalysis.

 

Tungsten trioxide is a transition metal oxide, which is widely used in gas sensors, photocatalysts, electrochromic device and so on, due to its special physical and chemical properties, and has a relatively broad application prospects. As a semiconductor photocatalyst, tungsten trioxide can produce holes with the strong oxidizing power and hydroxyl radicals in the reaction, and thus can be used to degrade pollutants in water. The researchers believed that, this very potential tungsten trioxide - graphene composite photocatalyst will have a widely concern, in the challenge of environmental remediation, and also will become the nemesis of dye pollutants; moreover, they highlight that this material is prepared by electrospinning method, which is suitable for industrial scale production.