Heterogeneous photocatalysis using TiO 2 is a non-selective technique used for the degradation of organic molecules. Controlling the morphology of TiO 2 has recently been considered one of the important approaches for controlling the selectivity of TiO 2. In this work, TiO 2 nanotubes and nanosheets were synthesized from spherical TiO 2 nanoparticles using the hydrothermal method. The starting and prepared samples were characterized by XRD, TEM and FESEM. The selectivity of the three morphologies towards the photocatalytic degradation of three food dyes (colours yellow sunset, red allura and red carmoisine) was tested. Importantly, changes in morphology led to each dye being adsorbed preferentially by one of the three morphologies and decomposing more rapidly, where the optimum rate of degradation for sunset yellow, red allura and red carmoisine was achieved by TiO 2 nanosheets, spherical TiO 2 and TiO 2 nanotubes, respectively.
The heterogeneous photocatalysis using semiconductor nanocrystals is an important process in the field of water treatment since it is a low cost, environmentally friendly, and zero waste technique. In this work, titanate nanostructures (sheets, tubes, and wires) were prepared by simple hydrothermal method. All samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area analysis, and Zetasizer. The results revealed that tuning the morphology of TiO 2 changed the activity of the prepared nanostructures, where titanate nanowires exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity toward crystal violet dye, reaching 100% at pH 3 under ultraviolet illumination for 35 min.
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