Facile synthesis of TiO2/trititanate heterostructure with enhanced photoelectric efficiency for an improved photocatalysis

Abstract TiO 2 /trititanate photocatalyst was prepared by alkaline hydrothermal treatment of TiO 2 , and characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Raman etc. The photocatalytic activities of catalysts were evaluated by the photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB). It is found that the heterostructure can be directly formed via the conversion of surface TiO 2 into trititanate. The coupled nanostructure possesses enhanced adsorption ability for RhB as compared with the raw TiO 2 , owing to the formation of an increased amount of hydroxyl groups on the prepared catalyst surface. Besides, the generated trititanate can successfully introduce a shallow energy level in the coupled composite, which results in the improvement of separation efficiency of photoinduced electron–hole pairs. In the degradation experiments, TiO 2 /trititanate exhibits much higher photocatalytic activity than the bare TiO 2 . These advantages of the coupled nanostructure in adsorption capacity and photoelectric efficiency may make it a wider application for the removal of organic pollutants.