Hydrothermal synthesis and photocatalytic activity of anatase TiO 2 nanofiber

Abstract

TiO 2 nanofiber consisting of 15±5 nm anatase grains was synthesized by hydrothermal treatment of fibrous hydrogen titanate precursor at 180 °C for 20 h. The hydrogen titanate precursor was synthesized by hydrothermal treatment of commercial P25 TiO 2 powder in 10 M NaOH at 200 °C for 20 h followed by soaking in 0.1 M HNO 3 to perform ion exchange between the as-synthesized Na titanate and H. By controlling pH of the solution during hydrothermal treatment of the hydrogen titanate precursor, pure anatase TiO 2 nanofiber was obtained. Its band-gap energy determined from the onset of diffused reflectance spectrum was 3.19 eV which is equal to that of anatase TiO 2 powder. The TiO 2 nanofiber showed higher photodecomposition efficiency than the Cotiox KA-100 TiO 2 but lower than the P25 TiO 2. Photodegradation is the predominant process for 'Reactive blue 171' removal. Copyright © 2012 American Scientific Publishers. All rights reserved.