BACKGROUND: Photocatalytic degradation of organic compounds, including nitrophenol, is one of the most popular approaches to pollution control and disposal. Graphene-based nanocomposites have attracted considerable attention in photocatalytic research owing to their excellent electrical, thermal and mechanical properties. In this work, TiO2 material was modified with graphene by a hydrothermal method, the photocatalytic performance of the prepared catalyst was evaluated by degradation of 4-nitrophenol, which is a highly toxic, stable and carcinogenic organic pollutant. RESULTS: The characterization results showed that the low amount of graphene disperses well over TiO2 and it does not influence the crystal phase, but makes the specific surface area of graphene/TiO2 greater than that of TiO2. Compared with TiO2, graphene/TiO2 exhibits enhanced photocatalytic activity for the degradation of 4-nitrophenol under simulated solar irradiation. CONCLUSION: The enhanced activity of photo-degradation could be attributed to the involved graphene being beneficial to charge transportation and separation of photogenerated charge carriers, and providing more surface active sites for degradation reaction of the target pollutant. The present result highlights the important application of graphene as a novel carbon material in treating highly toxic pollutant through photocatalysis technology. (C) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry