Preparation, Characterization, And Catalytic Properties Of Amorphous Titanium Dioxide

As an inexhaustible, clean and green energy source, solar energy can be gained at anywhere on earth. People have used solar energy in heating, electricity generating, and other fields since ancient times. However, we can now exploit only a limited part of the total amount of solar energy on earth. So, the potential of the related research in the application of solar energy is rather considerable.Herein, the synthesis of the TiO₂ and the photocatalytic properties of TiO₂ will be discussed. We first synthesize amorphous TiO₂ and then investigate the catalytic properties of these TiO₂ by the following three different aspects of the situation: XAFS, reduction of nitrobenzene and oxidation of phenol. The result shows that the TiO₂ we get have the main photo-absorption in UV region. According to this result, we choose amalgam vapor lamp as the light source in photochemical reactions. Under the irradiation of amalgam vapor lamp, our TiO₂ show photocatalytic activity in both photochemical reactions mentioned above, and then,we obtain the strcture change of predecessor to amorphous TiO₂ according to XANES and EXAFS.