A hybrid organic–inorganic layered TiO₂ based nanocomposite for sunlight photocatalysis

Abstract

A novel hybrid nanocomposite constituted of single TiO2 nanosheets sandwiched between stearic acid self-assembled monolayers was synthesized and tested in the photodegradation of methylene blue under sunlight.

Layered Nanocomposite 2D-TiO2 with Cu2O Nanoparticles as an Efficient Photocatalyst for 4-Chlorophenol Degradation and Hydrogen Evolution

“…This characteristic is consistent with the width of a single layer of LHTiO 2 , 2.78 nm (Fig. 1), as well as with the average thickness of micrometer particles of material of ~ 18 nm, as estimated by the Scherrer equation, corresponding to about 6 single hybrid layers per particle [16]. Figure 2c shows the very regular cubic Cu 2 O nanoparticles of 60 nm (particle diameter measured by dynamic light scattering (DLS) in Fig S2).…”

“…The better photocatalytic performance of LHTiO 2 / Cu 2 O (1:0.1) could be ascribed to the lower recombination of the photo-generated electrons and holes and a greater close interface between the 2D sheets with the flat surfaces of the Cu 2 O. Besides, the presence of a hydrophobic organic moiety in LHTiO 2 contributes significantly to the photocatalytic increase, previously observed in photocatalytic studies of organo-inorganic hybrids of TiO 2 and ZnO [16,37].…”

“…An effective approach to design efficient photocatalysts is the strategy of coupling a TiO 2 wide-band-gap semiconductor with narrow-band-gap semiconductors, such as Cu 2 O [11][12][13][14], RuO 2 [15] and CdS [16,17], amongst others, broadens the absorption range and can also show superior photocatalytic performance because of the charge transfer between the two different types of semiconductors. This decreases the electron/hole recombination, while maintaining good compatibility between the two semiconductors, increase the matching of the semiconductors bandgap, with the essential feature of using the hole oxidation power for the degradation of water pollutants and the electron reduction power for the evolution of hydrogen [8,18].…”

Composites of Laminar Nanostructured ZnO and VOx-Nanotubes Hybrid as Visible Light Active Photocatalysts

“…The rate constants were calculated together with the linear regression coefficients (R 2 ) for all samples under solar simulated light. These results agreed qualitatively with reports on the photocatalytic efficiency improvement of layered hybrids [23].…”

Two-Dimensional Titanium Dioxide–Surfactant Photoactive Supramolecular Networks: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications for the Conversion of Light Energy

“…The self-assembly of long carbon chain amphiphiles is a powerful tool as a template for the preparation of two-dimensional (2D) mesoporous nanostructures [ 16 , 17 , 18 ] that, for example, have been widely used to obtain siliceous [ 19 ] and non-siliceous nanomaterials [ 20 , 21 ], including TiO 2 [ 22 ]. Two-dimensional materials, due to their large surface interfaces and extended pore structures, uniformly distributed with virtually no diffusion barriers, are particularly suitable for catalyst designs [ 23 , 24 ].…”