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We conducted a detailed evaluation of the electrochemical performance of artificial graphite (AG) and natural graphite (NG) from four leading global companies: AG-1, AG-2, AG-3, and NG-4 towards Ni-rich Li-ion batteries. We found that AG-2, an artificial graphite variant, demonstrated superior performance with exceptional capacity, rapid charging capabilities, and impressive capacity retention. AG-2 achieved a specific capacity of 338.97 mAh g−1, outperforming AG-1 (321.16 mAh g−1), AG-3 (314.43 mAh g−1), and NG-1 (328.08 mAh g−1). This superiority was further confirmed by high C-rate tests ranging from 2 C to 5 C. Notably, after 500 cycles, AG-2 maintained 91.18% of its initial capacity, significantly surpassing AG-1 (89.44%), AG-3 (78.78%), and NG-1 (84.16%). The study attributes AG-2’s exceptional performance to its refined properties such as smaller particle size, fewer graphite imperfections, and a higher 2H phase content. These characteristics lead to increased active material in the anode, enhancing battery capacity, and to less material degradation over time, ensuring consistent capacity retention. Overall, AG-2 stands out as a highly efficient and cost-effective option for lithium-ion battery applications, eclipsing other commercial graphite alternatives.

This research aims to investigate photocatalytic activities of titanium dioxide (TiO2) incorporated with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposite catalysts. These TiO2-rGO photocatalysts were easily prepared through a direct-mixing of TiO2 powder suspended in acidic solution under the different amounts of rGO loading (0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00 wt%). Then, the obtained TiO2-rGO samples were characterized by a several techniques. The results demonstrated that the crystalline phases of all samples are corresponding to pristine TiO2, whereas the characteristic peaks of rGO in the TiO2-rGO nanocomposites could be observed and also well-confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. TEM results showed that the TiO2 nanoparticles were well-combined with rGO nanosheets. Moreover, the photocatalytic activities of all TiO2-rGO photocatalyst samples were evaluated by photodegrading of methylene blue (MB) dye solution under natural sunlight irradiation. The results revealed that all TiO2-rGO nanocatalysts exhibited much higher activity than those of the bare TiO2. The improved photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the presence of rGO nanosheets, leading to the decrease of electron (e-) - hole (h+) recombination of TiO2 catalyst, increasing charge transfer rate of electrons and surface-adsorbed amount of MB molecules which enhances the photocatalytic activity.

In this work, rubber-TiO2-rGO (RT-rGO) composite sheets were successfully prepared by a simple latex mixing-casting method using TiO2 and natural rubber latex with different amounts of rGO loading. The prepared RT-rGO sheet samples were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, Raman, SEM and EDS techniques. The photocatalytic properties of the prepared RT-rGO sheets as catalyst were evaluated using methylene blue (MB) dye solution under UV light irradiation. The result indicated that all the composite sheets loaded with rGO had better photocatalytic activities than the sheet without rGO loading. RT-rGO6.2% sheet showed the highest removal efficiency of 93.3% which has the rate constant (kapp) as 98.2 times higher than the unloaded sheet. Furthermore, the efficiency of the RT-rGO sheet upon the repeated usage was also studied. The result indicated that the sheet could be easily used, recovered and reused many times with no need for the cleaning in between successive uses. Thus, the RT-rGO sheet appears to be an attractive-material for the wastewater treatment or the water purification industry.