Porous TiO2 hollow nanospheres: synthesis, characterization and enhanced photocatalytic properties

Abstract

A facile solvothermal process combined with a precursor thermal transformation method has been developed for preparing porous TiO 2 hollow nanospheres with a high surface area and a good thermal stability. The porous TiO 2 hollow spheres were obtained by using TiOSO 4 as a titanium source and carbon nanospheres as a sacrificial template. Their particle size, diameter and morphology can be readily controlled by varying growth parameters, including reaction temperature, time and reagent concentration. The calcination temperature of TiO 2 -C core-shell nanospheres was found to have a profound effect on the structure and properties of the final products. The photocatalytic activities of the products were evaluated by the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO). The TiO 2 hollow spheres obtained from 450 C thermal treatment exhibited higher photocatalytic activity than commercial Degussa P25 in the presence of Cr(VI). The possible photodegradation mechanism was also investigated.

Synthesis and photoactivity of anatase porous single crystals with different pore sizes

“…It can be seen that all samples show the type IV isotherm, which is consistent with the porous feature demonstrated by SEM micrographs. Desorption curves of samples exhibit the hysteresis loop of type E which can be attributed to the inkwell-type pore structure formed by the close-packed template spheres inside anatase crystal [21,22]. The PSCs exhibit relatively narrow pore size distributions (Fig.5), in agreement with the results observed from SEM images.…”

Preparation of flower-like ZnO architectures assembled with nanosheets for enhanced photocatalytic activity

“…The specific surface area of H-ZnO and R-ZnO are evaluated to be approximately 22.7 and 37.3 m 2 g À1 , respectively. It should be noted that the obtained R-ZnO has larger surface areas than H-ZnO, suggesting better photocatalytic properties [32]. Fig.…”

Photocatalytic degradation of different chromophoric dyes in aqueous phase using La and Mo doped TiO2 hybrid carbon spheres

“…Solvothermal process for the synthesis of porous TiO 2 hollow carbon spheres and its photocatalytic activity was studied by Zhang et.al. [21].…”