Fabrication of Fe2TiO5/TiO2 nanoheterostructures with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

Abstract

Fe₂TiO₅ is a promising photocatalyst owing to its appropriate band gap, outstanding photochemical stability, low cost as well as electronic and atomic structures matching with TiO₂. In this work, we have fabricated Fe₂TiO₅/TiO₂ heterostructure hollow nanospheres with 10 nm scale shell thickness, 220 m² g⁻¹ surface area and uniform distribution of Fe₂TiO₅ and TiO₂ by a facile carbon templates and ion adsorption process. It is demonstrated that the visible photocatalytic activities for degrading pollutant of Fe₂TiO₅/TiO₂ heterostructures are greatly enhanced (an increase more than 3 times) compared with either P25 or pure Fe₂TiO₅ under visible light. Comparative experiments have been carried out with different Fe/Ti molar ratios exhibited diverse catalytic activity, the mechanism of which has been discussed in detail.