Facile one-pot synthesis of surface-fluorinated TiO2 hollow spheres with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Synergistic Effects of Fluorine and WO3 Nanoparticles on the Surface of TiO2 Hollow Spheres for Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity under Visible Light Irradiation

“…The XPS results are consistent with the XRD (Figure S1) and TEM–EDX (Figure S2c) results. These XRD, TEM, EDX, and XPS results of the synthesized FTHS are in good agreement with those reported previously, indicating the successful fabrication of the FTHS.…”

“…The FTHS was prepared by a rapid and simple wet chemical process using AHFT and boric acid, according to a previously reported method . First, deionized water and formic acid were mixed at the same volume.…”

“…Therefore, many attempts have been made to control the size and morphology of semiconductor photocatalysts to enhance their photocatalytic performance. Recently, many studies on semiconductor photocatalysts have shown that a variety of hierarchically nanostructured photocatalysts, including TiO 2 hollow spheres, exhibit improved photocatalytic performance owing to the larger surface area and higher number of internal pores that ensure more active sites and better charge separation. − …”

“…The photocatalytic efficiency of semiconductor catalysts also depends on their surface properties such as the surface acidity, surface functional groups, defects, and crystalline phases . Recently, fluorine-containing TiO 2 (F–TiO 2 ), such as fluorine-doped TiO 2 or fluorinated TiO 2 , has been investigated for examining the effect of fluorine on the photocatalytic behavior of TiO 2 . − F–TiO 2 showed significantly improved photocatalytic activity than that of bare TiO 2 owing to the creation of oxygen vacancies, enhancement of the surface acidity, and increase in the number of active sites . In addition, the creation of oxygen vacancies also led to photocatalysis under visible light irradiation …”

“…In the present study, FTHS and WO 3 nanoparticles were combined for the photodegradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation and the FTHS/WO 3 heterostructure exhibited highly efficient photocatalysis under visible light irradiation owing to synergistic effects from the surface fluorination, hollow structure, and TiO 2 /WO 3 heterojunction. The FTHS was prepared by a rapid and simple wet chemical process using ammonium hexafluorotitanate (AHFT) and boric acid, according to a method reported previously by us . Then, FTHS/WO 3 heterostructures with different weight ratios of the FTHS and WO 3 nanoparticles were prepared via a simple wet impregnation method.…”