Core-Shell Heterostructures of Rutile and Anatase TiO2 Nanofibers for Photocatalytic Solar Energy Conversion

Ming Chung Wu*, Kai Chi Hsiao, Yin Hsuan Chang, Krisztián Kordás

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Two types of core-shell heterostructure TiO2 nanofibers (noted as core@shell TiO2 NFs) were synthesized by sequential hydrothermal, calcination, and impregnation processes. Rutile TiO2 nanofibers (R TiO2 NFs) core with anatase TiO2 nanoparticles (A TiO2 NPs) shell is denoted as R@A TiO2 NFs, and the reverse structure with anatase TiO2 NFs core (A TiO2 NFs) and rutile TiO2 nanoparticles shell (R TiO2 NPs) is denoted as A@R TiO2 NFs. In our study, the photodegradation of organic dyes and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) analysis were applied to shed light on the mechanism of the excited electron-hole pair separation. The results of photodegradation showed that the A@R TiO2 NFs have the highest activity under UV-B and UV-A irradiation, being nearly 3-fold higher as compared to AEROXIDE TiO2 P25. The results in conjunction with KPFM measurements indicated that, in the heterostructure, electron-hole pairs are efficiently separated, the excited electrons stay in the anatase phase, and holes are injected to the rutile phase. When the A@R TiO2 NFs heterostructures are decorated with Pt nanoparticles (Pt-A@R TiO2 NFs), the nanocomposite is particularly active in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from ethanol-water mixtures with a production rate of ∼8,500 μmol/h·g. Our study not only explains the role of anatase-rutile junctions in photocarrier separation, but also projects the development of other efficient photocatalytic heterostructures for green energy production and conversion.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1970-1979
Number of pages10
JournalACS Applied Nano Materials
Volume2
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 26 04 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society.

Keywords

  • TiO nanofiber
  • core-shell
  • heterostructure
  • photocatalyst
  • photocatalytic hydrogen production
  • photodegradation

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