Acetic acid-conditioned synthesis and characterization of semi-amorphous Ti-BDC with enhanced photocatalytic performance

Abstract

Ti-based Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are considered one of the most charming research due to the remarkable optoelectronic and photocatalytic properties. However, the complexity of controlling the chemical changes in Ti makes the synthesis of Ti-MOFs complex. Here we simply adjusted the synthesis conditions with acetic acid (AA) to obtained a semi-amorphous structure (Ti-BDC). The introduction of AA changed the morphology of the original typical MIL-125(Ti), and enhanced its photocatalytic performance. By adding excess of AA, the grains are refined and Ti-BDC is formed, thus changing the surface state of materials, increasing the light absorption, and reducing the photogenerated charge, which eventually improve the photocatalytic performance. Besides, the samples showed good stability and cycling performance. This method paves the way for stable and economical preparation of Ti-based photocatalytic materials.