Graphene-based composite photocatalysts have drawn more and more attention in current photocatalytic field. However, in most cases, the reported materials exhibited high recombination rate of photogenerated charge carriers and low photocatalytic performance during to their structural and functional defects. Here, a new graphene-semiconductor nanocomposite consisting of YInO3 nanoparticles and two-dimensional graphene nanosheets was reported in Laboratory for Combinatorial Materials and Application at USTC. During the solvothermal process, the deposition of YInO3 nanoparticles on the graphene nanosheets can be achieved. Under visible light irradiation, the photogenerated electrons can transfer from the conduction band of YInO3 to graphene nanosheets because of the Fermi level difference. Meanwhile, the chemical bonding between YInO3 and graphene can narrow the band gap of YInO3 to long wavelength region. With these advantages, Graphene/YInO3 nanocomposites exhibited significantly increased photocatalytic activity over pure YInO3 in water splitting. A high H2 evolution rate of 400 μmol/hg was observed with 0.5 wt% graphene in the nanocomposite, which was 127 and 3.7 times higher than that of pure YInO3 and Pt0.5/YInO3, respectively. Furthermore, the G0.5/YInO3 nanocomposite showed good stability for five consecutive runs of 40 h, which provides a new promising candidate for photocatalytic hydrogen production under visible sun light. [ Nanoscale 2014, 6, 2299] 

The TEM image (A), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (B), H2 evolution rate(C) of Graphene/YInO3 nanocomposite, and Photocatalytic stability for G0.5/YInO3 nanocomposite (D)