Amorphous Domains in Black Titanium Dioxide.

Although oxygen vacancies (O s) play a critical role for many applications of metal oxides, a controllable synthetic strategy for anisotropic O s remains a great challenge. Here, a novel strategy is proposed to achieve the regional dual structure with anisotropic O s at both the surface and in the interior of TiO by constructing amorphous domains. The as-prepared black TiO with amorphous domains exhibits superior activity in degrading rhodamine B (RhB) solutions, which can instantly decompose RhB with just a shake. First-principle simulations reveal that subsurface O s in TiO are energetically favored, resulting in the formation of amorphous domains in the interior region via diffusion of surface-formed O s into the subsurface. The stable O -induced amorphous domains in TiO with enhanced catalytic performances provide a scalable strategy to practical O engineering in functional metal oxides.