Synthesis Of Composites Based On TiO₂ Nanobelts And Its Photocatalytic Activity

One-dimensional?1D?Ti O₂ nanobelts has the advantages of photogenerated carriers fast transfer,easy recycling and high specific surface areas compared with TiO₂ nanoparticles,which have been extensively used in various fields including photocatalytic degradation of pollutants,water splitting,solar cells,supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries.Nevertheless,its wide bandgap and high recombination of photoinduced electron-hole pairs,which restrict its applications.Many attempts have been devoted to extend their light responsive range to visible light and improve the separation efficiency of charge carriers.One of the most effective ways is the construction of heterostructures.In this article,we focus on improving the visible light catalytic activity of TiO₂ nanobelts by using narrow band gap semiconductor materials to sensitize TiO₂ nanobelts.Due to the band matching and constructing heterostructure,the composites show much better photocatalic performance.The following is the brief introduction.?1?Compared with zero-dimensional nanoparticles,two-dimensional?2D?nanostructured materials have better catalytic performance.In addition,BiVO₄ is extensively investigated as a visible-light-driven photocatalyst because of its excellent visible-light photocatalytic performance.Therefore,incorporating 2D BiVO₄ nanosheets with 1D TiO₂ nanobelts can further promote the visible-light photocatalytic performance of TiO₂.Heterostructures that are formed by incorporating one-dimensional?1D?TiO₂ nanobelts into two-dimensional?2D?BiVO₄ nanosheets are fabricated via an electrostatic self–assembly process.Results show that TiO₂-BiVO₄ composites exhibit more efficient decomposition rate of rhodamine B?Rh B?compared with pure TiO₂ nanobelts.The enhanced photocatalytic performance is attributed to the band gap match and the formation of heterostructures between TiO₂ nanobelts and BiVO₄ nanosheets.The heterostructures extend the light responsive range and promote efficient separation of photoinduced electron–hole pairs.?2?CuS-TiO₂ composites are in situ synthesized using biomolecule L-cysteine as a sulfur source and chelating agent.In addition,1D TiO₂ nanobelts as a supporter have benefits for solving the aggregation problem of CuS nanoparticles.Results show that the visible-light photocatalytic activity of the synthesized CuS-TiO₂ composites is more than twice of that of pure TiO₂ nanobelts.The enhanced photocatalytic activity can be ascribed to energy band match and the formed CuS-TiO₂ heterostrutures,which lead to the enhanced light absorption in the visible light region and the efficient separation of photogenerated electrons and holes.