A Study of Controllable Synthesis and Formation Mechanism on Flower-Like TiO2 with Spherical Structure

Abstract

The development of photocatalytic materials with specific morphologies promises to be a good opportunity to discover geometrically relevant properties. Herein, this paper reported a facile hydrothermal method to directly synthesize TiO2 crystals with flower-like structures using tetrabutyl titanate (TBT) as a titanium source and ethylene glycol as an additive. We also proposed a reasonable growth mechanism by controlling reaction time in detail. The as-prepared samples were analyzed by using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy for structure and morphology characterization. The N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm results showed that the surface area of flower-like TiO2 with 10 h reaction time can reach 297 m2/g. We evaluated the photocatalytic performance of samples by using the degradation rate of methylene blue (MB) solution under UV-vis light. The TiO2 with 10 h reaction time exhibited a superior photocatalytic property than other samples in degrading MB under UV-vis light irradiation. More importantly, the catalyst could be reused many times. These results could benefit from the special morphology, high crystallinity and large specific surface area of the samples.

Tailoring the Structure–Property Relationships of Innovative Flowerlike TiO2 Structures in a Fiber-Shaped Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

“…40 Liu et al demonstrated a direct synthesis of flowerlike TiO 2 crystals using TBT and ethylene glycol. 41 In the above-described studies, some mainly focus on the photocatalytic properties of these unique hierarchical structures. 32,34,40,41 In some works, 33,35,37,39 the photovoltaic properties of TiO 2 flowerlike structures were investigated, while all of them utilized a sandwich-shaped flat cell design with conductive glasses.…”

“…Zong et al reported 3D flowerlike morphology of TiO 2 obtained by a hydrothermal method with TTIP and acetic acid . Liu et al demonstrated a direct synthesis of flowerlike TiO 2 crystals using TBT and ethylene glycol …”

Fabrication and Photocatalytic Properties of Electrospun Fe-Doped TiO2 Nanofibers Using Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone Precursors

“…For this reason, in the case of anatase TiO 2 with a bandgap of 3.2 eV, only a short wavelength no longer than 387.5 nm can be used for the reaction, which means that 95% of the sunlight incident on the earth cannot be used. Because these factors directly reduce the efficiency of the photocatalyst, various methods have been proposed to solve these issues, including elemental doping [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ], dye sensitization [ 24 , 25 , 26 ], and microstructure control [ 27 , 28 , 29 ]. In the case of elemental doping, the dopant acts as a trap for excited electrons or holes, which delays the recombination of electron–hole pairs.…”

Rapid Growth of TiO2 Nanoflowers via Low-Temperature Solution Process: Photovoltaic and Sensing Applications

“…M. Ghosh et al reported on the fabrication of “nanorods-on-nanofiber” heterostructures by the distribution of V 2 O 5 nanorods on TiO 2 nanofibers via the gas jet fiber (GJF) spinning process, and these heterostructures showed excellent photocatalytic activity due to the slowdown of the electron–hole charge recombination phenomena [ 17 ]. H. Liu et al recently studied the direct synthesis of TiO 2 crystals with flower-like structures by a facile hydrothermal method using tetrabutyl titanate (TBT) as a titanium source and ethylene glycol as an additive [ 18 ]. They found that TiO 2 crystals with flower-like structures exhibited high photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under UV-vis light irradiation because these nanostructures had a considerably high surface area.…”