Significance of rod shape transformation of tetrahedral TiO2 under thermal influence for enhanced solar photocatalysis

TiO₂ nanorods (NRs) have been successfully synthesized via simple hydrothermal technique utilizing TiCl₄ as precursor at varied temperature of 160 °C, 200 °C and 250 °C, respectively. Further, thermal treatment was done in the close system at calcinations temperature thrice of the synthesis temperature. The prepared NRs were well characterized for the various physio-chemical natures of the materials. Crystallographic and morphological investigations showed that the samples exhibited high crystallinity with diameter ranges from 300 to 400 nm and length in several micrometers. XPS analysis proved the existence of oxygen defects that were created during the synthesis. The solar photocatalysis showed 81.27%, 92.20% and 58.79% removal of color by NR1, NR2 and NR3, respectively, within 300 min of direct sun irradiation time. The first-order kinetic model fits the better curve with the correlation coefficients of 0.97509, 0.97608 and 0.98417, respectively. Trapping experiments shows the dominant of holes and superoxide as the primary reactive oxygen species.

Graphical abstract