Rapidly and mildly transferring anatase phase of graphene-activated TiO₂ to rutile with elevated Schottky barrier: Facilitating interfacial hot electron injection for Vis–NIR driven photocatalysis

Visible and even infrared (IR) light-initiated hot electrons of graphene (Gr) catalysts are a promising driven power for green, safe, and sustainable H₂O₂ synthesis and organic synthesis without the limitation of bandgap-dominated narrow light absorption to visible light confronted by conventional photocatalyst. However, the life time of photogenerated hot electrons is too short to be efficiently used for various photocatalytic reactions. Here, we proposed a straightforward method to prolong the lifetime of photogenerated hot electrons from graphene by tuning the Schottky barrier at Gr/rutile interface to facilitate the hot electron injection. The rational design of Gr-coated TiO₂ heterojunctions with interface synergy-induced decrease in the formation energy of the rutile phase makes the phase transfer of TiO₂ support proceed smoothly and rapidly via ball milling. The optimized Gr/rutile dyad could provide a H₂O₂ yield of 1.05 mM·g⁻¹·h⁻¹ under visible light irradiation (λ ≥ 400 nm), which is 30 times of the state-of-the-art noble-metal-free titanium oxide-based photocatalyst, and even achieves a H₂O₂ yield of 0.39 mM·g⁻¹·h⁻¹ on photoexcitation by near-infrared-region light (~ 800 nm).