A sol-gel method was employed to synthesise pure titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) and surfactant assisted TiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs).The effect of novel surfactant viz., Lauryl lactyl lactate on photocatalytic properties of TiO 2 was studied. TiO 2 NPs were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV-Vis Diffuse Reflectance spectra (DRS), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), and Brunauer -Emmet -Teller (BET) surface area. Anatase phase of TiO 2 was confirmed by X-Ray diffraction pattern and the crystallite size was between 9-19 nm. Addition of surfactant improved the BET surface area, surface defects, while the agglomeration of particles was reduced. DRS results revealed that the addition of surfactant to TiO 2 sol induced a red shift of the absorption edge which resulted in the reduction of band gap from 3.23 to 3.21 eV. These physicochemical properties of TiO 2 NPs were correlated with photocatalytic degradation of phenol. About 92% of phenol degradation was observed for surfactant assisted TiO 2 NPs (SA-TiO 2 ). Salicylic acid and caffeine were also degraded using SA-TiO 2 NPs.

Electrochemically stable black TiO 2 composed of Ti 3+ ions and oxygen vacancies is successfully synthesized by a facile and economic sol-gel method followed by calcination in nitrogen atmosphere at 400 °C for 2 h. Several physicochemical techniques are probed to validate the desired state of the obtained material. The material is formed in a pure state with an average size of 10 nm. The electrochemical studies are conducted for its use as negative electrode for Li-ion batteries. At high current rate of 5 C, the electrodes deliver a high discharge capacity of 226 mA h g −1 even after 150 cycles. Similarly, the electrodes also deliver discharge capacities of 197 and 153 mA h g −1 at current rates of 7 C and 10 C, respectively. The robust electrochemical properties of black TiO 2 including large specific capacities at high current rates and high stability are ascribed to the formation of defective structure, conductive Ti 3+ ions and oxygen vacancies. Keywords Black TiO 2 • High-rate negative electrode • Lithium-ion battery • Ti 3+ ions Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

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S–B-TiO2 exhibited 90 and 96% visible light simultaneous degradation of rose bengal and methylene blue dyes in 80 min, respectively.