The roles of growth conditions on the topotactic transformation from TiOF2 nanocubes to 3D hierarchical TiO2 nanoboxes

Abstract

The roles of growth conditions, such as pH values, reaction temperatures and reaction times, on the morphologies and topotactic transformation processes from TiOF₂ to anatase TiO₂ has been investigated in this work. The topotactic transformation from TiOF₂ to TiO₂ can only take place with pH values ranging from 2 to 11. The morphologies of as-prepared samples were greatly dependent on the pH values of precursor solutions. The reaction temperatures can affect the crystalline quality and surface areas of TiO₂ nanoboxes. The photocatalytic performances were also discussed.