Nickel Oxide Clusters on TiO₂@Carbon Cloth Nanowires for Efficient Photocatalytic Oxidation of Formaldehyde under 420 nm LED Irradiation

Abstract

It is a great challenge to fabricate effective visible‐light‐driven photocatalysts to decompose indoor volatile organic pollutants in the air. Herein, rutile TiO2 nanorods were prepared on carbon cloth by means of a seed assisted hydrothermal method, and NiO clusters were loaded subsequently onto the TiO2 nanorods. Loading of NiO clusters enhances the absorption of visible light due to the surface plasma resonance (SPR) effect at the interface of NiO/TiO2. The degradation efficiency of the optimized sample reaches 94 % for formaldehyde under 420 nm LED irradiation, higher than value of 34 % obtained for TiO2. While under 365 nm LED light, the degradation rate obtained with the same sample compared with TiO2 decreases dramatically since 365 nm light cannot activate the NiO/TiO2 junction and NiO coverage blocks partly light absorption. The SPR effect for NiO/TiO2 facilitates the generation and transfer of photoinduced electron/hole pairs, thus enhancing the photocatalytic oxidation of gaseous formaldehyde under visible‐light irradiation.