High-Efficient Photocatalytic Performance under Visible Light of Functionalized TiO₂ Nanofibers via Steam and Pressure Co-Modification

Abstract

Surface structure plays a key role on the sensitization process. Mesoporous TiO 2 nanofibers with high surface area and improved dye coupling mode were successfully fabricated via a simple, template-free, and effective water steam and pressure co-modified route. Compared with the commercial P25, the modulated surface structure and efficient coupling interaction with a sensitized dye promoted the electron transfer from visiblelight-excited chromophores of the dye to the conduction band of TiO 2 , and thus more than 4 times higher photodegradation of dyes was obtained under visible light (>420 nm). With RhB as a typical dye sensitizer, the photodegradation on other dyes (methyl orange and methylene blue) were all enhanced under visible light. Moreover, the detailed photodegradation mechanism and the coupling mode between the dye and TiO 2 were proposed based on the experimental results. The water steam and pressure co-modified strategy could inspire similar attempts to modulate the surface electronic structure and interaction mode of dyes of TiO 2 for its applications in environmental, chemical, and biological areas in the future.

High-Pressure Phase Transitions in Densely Packed Nanocrystallites of TiO2-II

“…Titania (TiO 2 ) finds applications in photocatalysis, − coatings, electronic components, , thermal insulations, etc. TiO 2 has more than 10 polymorphs that include the ambient phases rutile, anatase, brookite, TiO 2 (B), TiO 2 (H), and TiO 2 (R) and the high-pressure phases with the structure types of α-PbO 2 (i.e., TiO 2 -II, space group Pbcn , ICSD no.…”