Multiple Heterojunction in Single Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles for Novel Metal-Free Photocatalysis
Despite a longstanding controversy surrounding TiO2 materials, TiO2 polymorphs with heterojunctions composed of anatase and rutile outperform individual polymorphs because of the type-II energetic band alignment at the heterojunction interface. Improvement in photocatalysis has also been achieved vi...
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Published in | Nano letters Vol. 18; no. 7; pp. 4257 - 4262 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
American Chemical Society
11.07.2018
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Despite a longstanding controversy surrounding TiO2 materials, TiO2 polymorphs with heterojunctions composed of anatase and rutile outperform individual polymorphs because of the type-II energetic band alignment at the heterojunction interface. Improvement in photocatalysis has also been achieved via black TiO2 with a thin disorder layer surrounding ordered TiO2. However, localization of this disorder layer in a conventional single TiO2 nanoparticle with the heterojunction composed of anatase and rutile has remained a big challenge. Here, we report the selective positioning of a disorder layer of controlled thicknesses between the anatase and rutile phases by a conceptually different synthetic route to access highly efficient novel metal-free photocatalysis for H2 production. The presence of a localized disorder layer within a single TiO2 nanoparticle was confirmed for the first time by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy with electron energy-loss spectroscopy and inline electron holography. Multiple heterojunctions in single TiO2 nanoparticles composed of crystalline anatase/disordered rutile/ordered rutile layers give the nanoparticles superior electron/hole separation efficiency and novel metal-free surface reactivity, which concomitantly yields an H2 production rate that is ∼11-times higher than that of Pt-decorated conventional anatase and rutile single heterojunction TiO2 systems. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1530-6984 1530-6992 |
DOI: | 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b01245 |