Morphological control and photodegradation behavior of rutile TiO2 prepared by a low-temperature process

Flower-like rutile titania nanocrystals were prepared via a simple aqueous-phase stirring for 24 h at a low temperature of 75 degrees C, employing only TiCl4, HCl as the starting materials. XRD result proved the formation of rutile TiO2. The observations from TEM and SEM showed that the products were large-scale flower-shaped structures composed of radial nanorods. Comparative experiments demonstrated that pinecone-like, needlelike ruble TiO2 could be easily achieved by varying the volume ratio of TiCl4/H2O. The growth mechanisms of TiO2 nanostructures prepared under different conditions and their photodegradation behavior were also discussed. It was found that the flower-like structures exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity in the photodegradation of aqueous brilliant red X-3B Solution. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.