Defect engineering in photocatalysts recently exhibits promising performances in solar-energy-driven reactions. However, defect engineering techniques developed so far rely on complicated synthesis processes and harsh experimental conditions, which seriously hinder its practical applications. In this work, we demonstrated a facile mass-production approach to synthesize gray titania with engineered surface defects. This technique just requires a simple liquid-plasma treatment under low temperature and atmospheric pressure. The in situ generation of hydrogen atoms caused by liquid plasma is responsible for hydrogenation of TiO 2 . Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements confirm the existence of surface oxygen vacancies and Ti 3+ species in gray TiO 2−x . Both kinds of defects concentrations are well controllable and increase with the output plasma power. UV-Vis diffused reflectance spectra show that the bandgap of gray TiO 2−x is 2.9 eV. Due to its extended visible-light absorption and engineered surface defects, gray TiO 2−x exhibits superior visible-light photoactivity. Rhodamine B was used to evaluate the visible-light photodegradation performance, which shows that the removal rate constant of gray TiO 2−x reaches 0.126 min −1 and is 6.5 times of P25 TiO 2 . The surface defects produced by liquid-plasma hydrogenation are proved stable in air and water and could be a candidate hydrogenation strategy for other photocatalysts.Nanomaterials 2020, 10, 342 2 of 13 light absorption, prompting superior performances in photodegradation and water splitting [13][14][15]. The enhanced solar light absorption of black TiO 2 is ascribed to additional intermediate electronic states (e.g., V o or Ti 3+ states) and disorder surface caused by hydrogenation [16][17][18]. More importantly, defect engineering, for instance defects concentration and distribution, also plays an important role in tuning photocatalytic activity of black TiO 2 . It was reported that the high defect ratio of surface to bulk can significantly enhance the photoactivity owing to preferential diffusion from bulk to surface of photoinduced charges [19,20]. However, surface defects are not stable enough as it can be spontaneously oxidized in air and water. So far, mainstream strategies to synthesize black/gray TiO 2−x are relied on the reduction of pristine stoichiometric TiO 2 [20][21][22][23][24], such as annealing under high pressures of H 2 or NH 3 , high-energy particle bombardment (hydrogen plasma, laser plasma, or high-energy electrons), and chemical reduction with reducing agent in vacuum. Apparently, it is significant and desirable to develop a simple and feasible strategy for massive production of black/gray TiO 2−x with engineered surface defects and related abundant solar absorption.Hereafter, we conduct a one-pot synthesis of gray TiO 2−x with large solar harvesting and engineered surface defects using a liquid-plasma technology at room temperature and atmospheric pressure [25]. There has recently been increasing interest in liquid-plasma...