Department of Electroceramics, Instituto de Cerámica y Vidrio-CSIC, Kelsen 5, Campus de Cantoblanco, E-28049, Madrid, Spain.
Nanotechnology. 2020 Jan 17;31(4):045603. doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ab49af. Epub 2019 Oct 1.
Anatase TiO has become a material of great interest for photocatalytic production of hydrogen, environmental purification and solar energy conversion. Among the key parameters boosting the photocatalytic efficiency of the anatase nanoparticles, an increased light absorption to expand its optical response to the visible region, together with an improved charge separation of the photo-generated electrons and holes, can be enumerated. In this work, yellow-coloured, single-phase anatase nanoparticles have been obtained using a simple two-step solvothermal routine which requires no external addition of dopants, nor the use of a harassing/aggressive synthesis atmosphere. The obtained powders display a lowered bandgap (<3.0 eV) and significantly reduce the recombination processes, eventually leading to an improved photocatalytic performance under visible light, as exemplified by an enhanced degradation of phenol. This exceptional response is linked to the presence of intrinsic defects in the yellowish particles and, hence, the specific conditions of the proposed methodology become crucial to produce a propitious TiO-defective nanomaterial capable of photo-degrade the phenol molecule, in contrast with the lack of photocatalytic activity currently exhibited by commercial photocatalysts under visible light.
锐钛矿 TiO 已成为光催化制氢、环境净化和太阳能转换的研究热点。在提高锐钛矿纳米粒子光催化效率的关键参数中，增加光吸收以扩展其对可见光区域的光响应，以及提高光生电子和空穴的电荷分离，可以被列举出来。在这项工作中，使用一种简单的两步溶剂热法获得了黄色单相锐钛矿纳米粒子，该方法不需要额外添加掺杂剂，也不需要使用苛刻/腐蚀性的合成气氛。所得粉末具有较低的带隙（<3.0eV），显著减少了复合过程，最终导致在可见光下的光催化性能得到提高，例如苯酚的降解得到增强。这种优异的响应与黄色颗粒中的本征缺陷有关，因此，所提出方法的特定条件对于制备有利于光降解苯酚分子的 TiO 缺陷纳米材料至关重要，而目前商业光催化剂在可见光下缺乏光催化活性。
