Synthesis of immobilized TiO2 nanowires by anodic oxidation and their gas phase photocatalytic properties

In this paper, anodic oxidation method was successfully employed to the direct growth of immobilized TiO₂ nanowires on titanium foil in ethylene glycol electrolyte solution contained HF and water. The morphologies of the TiO₂ nanowires could be tuned by changing the content of HF and water. The structures, morphologies and optical properties of TiO₂ nanowires were characterized by SEM, XRD, UV–vis and PL. It was found that the nanowires originally grew from the splitting of TiO₂ nanotubes. The gas phase photocatalytic activities were investigated by photodegradation of gaseous toluene under UV irradiation, and irregular TiO₂ nanowires showed the best photocatalytic ability.