General one-pot template-free hydrothermal method to metal oxide hollow spheres and their photocatalytic activities and lithium storage properties.

A general and facile one-pot template-free hydrothermal strategy has been developed to synthesize various metal oxide (TiO2, SnO2 and α-Fe2O3) hollow spheres with unified morphologies. The formation of hollow structure involves a trifluoroacetic acid (TFA)-assisted Ostwald ripening process. Photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared TiO2 product are evaluated by the photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB), which the TiO2 hollow spheres obtained from 450 °C thermal treatment exhibit higher photocatalytic activity than Degussa P25. In addition, electrochemical measurements demonstrate that all of the as-prepared metal oxides hollow spheres have the potential applications in lithium-ion battery. We have a great expectation that this synthesis strategy can afford a new universal route for functional metal oxide hollow materials preparation without using template.