Facile one-pot synthesis of carbon incorporated three-dimensional hierarchical TiO2 nanostructure for highly efficient pollutant removal

Abstract

Herein, a carbon incorporated three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical TiO₂ nanostructure (C_RF-TiO₂) was successfully synthesized via a facile one-pot route by coupling TiCl₃ hydrolysis–oxidation with resorcinol–formaldehyde (RF) reaction without any surfactant. The fabricated C_RF-TiO₂ showed an interesting 3D hierarchical and mesoporous structure, possessed relatively large specific surface area and excellent light absorption capability, and the TiO₂ in the final product was an anatase–rutile mixture with mature crystallinity. All of the above characteristics endow the prepared C_RF-TiO₂ with superior adsorption capability and photocatalytic activity compared to Degussa P25. As a result, with the presence of C_RF-TiO₂, pollutants in water could be rapidly separated from the aqueous phase via adsorption, which can ideally meet the requirements of fast water purification, and then the pollutants would be efficiently decomposed by a photocatalysis process under both UV and visible light irradiation to completely fulfill the pollutant removal target. The synthetic strategy for C_RF-TiO₂ employed in this study provides an effective solution for the synthesis of carbon incorporated 3D hierarchical TiO₂ architectures, and can introduce new insights to design TiO₂-based photocatalysts for practical environmental purification applications.