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Significance Statement
In a recently published paper in Chemical Engineering Journal, the authors successfully fabricated a novel TiO2 hollow sphere multimer photocatalyst via a very simple and efficient hydrothermal method by etching titanium plate in NH4F solution, where two major steps were involved in the formation mechanism: the formation of multimers on the titanium plate, followed with a hollowing process of multimers in the solution. Also the authors found that these photocatalysts displayed better photocatalytic activities than that of Degussa P25 in the degradation of low concentrataion gaseous styrene, which was attributed to the asorption and degradation synergistic effects of the large surface area, good anatase crystallinity, and unique hollow multimer structure as well as its relatively wide band energy. The paper should be of highly interest to researchers in the fields of material sciences and photocatalysis, and the porous photocatalysts possess excellent potential application in the atmospheric pollution control.
More information is available in this article at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1385894713006864 . To learn more about the groups’ work, please visit: http://www.antaicheng-group.cn/web-china/index.html .
Figure: T.C. An et al., Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, CAS, China, Chemical Engineering Journal, 228, 834-842, 2013.
Journal Reference
Chemical Engineering Journal, Volume 228, 15 July 2013, Pages 834-842.
Jiangyao Chen, Xin Nie, Huixian Shi, Guiying Li, Taicheng An.
State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Resources Utilization and Protection, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, PR China and
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China
Abstract
TiO2 hollow sphere multimer photocatalyst (SPMP) was synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal method using titanium plate (TP) as the titanium source and NH4F as the structure regulator. The structural properties of prepared photocatalysts were characterized using X-ray diffraction, UV–vis absorption spectra, N2 adsorption–desorption, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results indicated that the additional amount of NH4F and hydrothermal time played significant roles in the formation of the TiO2 SPMP. TiO2 SPMP could be obtained only when 0.80 g NH4F as well as TP were added to 40 mL of deionized water and then hydrothermally treated for 22 h at 120 °C. The photocatalytic activity of multimer photocatalysts fabricated under various conditions was evaluated and optimized to decompose gaseous styrene. The results revealed that all prepared photocatalysts (hollow or solid sphere multimers) showed better photocatalytic activity than Degussa P25 in the decomposition of gaseous styrene. TiO2 SPMP displayed the highest photocatalytic activity due to the synergistic effects of its large surface area, good anatase crystallinity, and unique hollow multimer structure as well as its relatively wide band energy. A preliminary two-major-step formation mechanism for hollow sphere multimers was proposed: The multimers were formed on the TP, followed by a hollowing process for multimers in the solution.
