Synthesis and Photocatalytic Activity of Anatase TiO2 Nanoparticles-coated Carbon Nanotubes

Yi Xie,Ghafar Ali,Sung Hwan Heo,Sung Oh Cho,Seung Hwa Yoo

doi:10.1007/s11671-009-9513-5

Abstract

A simple and straightforward approach to prepare TiO2-coated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is presented. Anatase TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) with the average size ~8 nm were coated on CNTs from peroxo titanic acid (PTA) precursor even at low temperature of 100 °C. We demonstrate the effects of CNTs/TiO2 molar ratio on the adsorption capability and photocatalytic efficiency under UV–visible irradiation. The samples showed not only good optical absorption in visible range, but also great adsorption capacity for methyl orange (MO) dye molecules. These properties facilitated the great enhancement of photocatalytic activity of TiO2 NPs-coated CNTs photocatalysts. The TiO2 NPs-coated CNTs exhibited 2.45 times higher photocatalytic activity for MO degradation than that of pure TiO2.

Highlights

TiO2 has been one of the most widely investigated and used materials over the past decades [1,2,3], because it is nontoxic, easy to be made, inexpensive and chemically stable
We demonstrate the effects of carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/TiO2 molar ratio on the adsorption capability and photocatalytic efficiency under UV–visible irradiation
The Scheme 1 Schematic illustration of the formation process of TiO2 NPs-coated CNTs measured lattice distance of 0.35 nm (Fig. 1b, d) is a good agreement with (101) lattice distance of anatase TiO2. These results indicate that anatase TiO2 NPs-coated CNTs have been successfully synthesized under low temperature of 100 °C

Summary

Introduction

TiO2 has been one of the most widely investigated and used materials over the past decades [1,2,3], because it is nontoxic, easy to be made, inexpensive and chemically stable. We demonstrate the effects of CNTs/TiO2 molar ratio on the adsorption capability and photocatalytic efficiency under UV–visible irradiation. These properties facilitated the great enhancement of photocatalytic activity of TiO2 NPs-coated CNTs photocatalysts.

Results

Conclusion