LAUSR

Abstract A novel photocatalyst comprises of ZrO 2 TiO 2 immobilized on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) – a ternary heterojunction (ZrO 2 TiO 2 /rGO) was synthesized by using facile chemical method. The nanocomposite was prepared with a strategy to achieve better utilization of excitons for catalytic reactions by channelizing from metal oxide surfaces to rGO support. TEM and XRD analysis results revealed the heterojunction formed between ZrO 2 and single crystalline anatase TiO 2 . The mesoporous structure of ZrO 2 TiO 2 was confirmed using BET analysis. The red shift in absorption edge position of ZrO 2 TiO 2 /rGO photocatalyst was characterized by using diffuse reflectance UV–Visible spectra. ZrO 2 TiO 2 /rGO showed greater interfacial charge transfer efficiency than ZrO 2 TiO 2 , which was evidenced by well suppressed PL intensity and high photocurrent of ZrO 2 TiO 2 /rGO. The suitable band gap of 1.0 wt% ZrO 2 TiO 2 /rGO facilitated the utilization of solar light in a wide range by responding to the light of energy equal to as well as greater than 2.95 eV by the additional formation of excited high-energy electrons (HEEs). ZrO 2 TiO 2 /rGO showed the enhanced H 2 production than TiO 2 /rGO, which revealed the role of ZrO 2 for the effective charge separation at the heterojunction and the solar light response. The optimum loading of 1.0 wt% of ZrO 2 and rGO on TiO 2 showed the highest photocatalytic performance (7773 μmolh −1 g c a t − 1 ) for hydrogen (H 2 ) production under direct solar light irradiation.