Abstract ▼ AI-Helper

The development of a high efficiency TiO2 photocatalyst is of great importance to a varity of solar light conversion and application fields ; the desired high efficiency can be achieved by employing well-controlled TiO2 nano-architectures. In this study, we have sucessfully synthesized well-ordered ...

The development of a high efficiency TiO2 photocatalyst is of great importance to a varity of solar light conversion and application fields ; the desired high efficiency can be achieved by employing well-controlled TiO2 nano-architectures. In this study, we have sucessfully synthesized well-ordered and aligned high surface area mesoporous TiO2 nanofibers (TiO2-NF) electrospinning TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2-NP). The TiO2-NF were created from compactly and densely packed ca. 20nm spherical nanoparticles and were synthesized into fibers with diameters of ca. 500nm, lengths of a few meters, and mesopores of 3?4nm radii. Photocatalytic comparison between TiO2-NF and TiO2-NP indicated that the former had far higher photocatalytic activities in photocurrent generation by a factor of 3 and higher hydrogen production by a factor of 7 . In the case of photocatalytic degradation of dichloroacetate(DCA), TiO2-NF still showed a seven-fold higher activity; however, its activity for 4-chlorophenol(4-CP) was slightly lower than TiO2-NP due to charge recombination occurring at adsorbed 4-CP. Eosin Y sensitized TiO2-NF was investigated for their photocatalytic activities for H2 production under visible irradiation. They exhibited the highly enhanced photocatalytic H2 production compared with various TiO2 particles. The photocatalytic superiority of TiO2-NF is attributed to effects of mesoporosity and nanoparticle alignment, which could cause efficient charge separation through interparticle charge transfer along the nanofiber framework. Finally, various surface characterization experiments were conducted and included to understand the photocatalytic behaviors of TiO2-NF and TiO2-NP.

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