Publication Date:
2011-10-20
Description:
Being expected as one of the most promising solutions in water and air purification as photocatalyst, TiO 2 is attracting intensive and extensive research interests globally despite its wide band gap (~3.2 eV for anatase structure) which limits it only to be activated under UV irradiation. In pursuit of extending the active region of TiO 2 toward visible light, considerable attention was devoted to develop TiO 2 -based photocatalyst. We report herein, for the first time, novel “bud-on-branch” Bi 2 WO 6 –TiO 2 nanofibers fabricated via a facile and large-scale electrospinning technique from a biphased precursor. Formed by surface-decorating continuous TiO 2 nanofibers (mixed anatase–rutile system with an average diameter of about 100 nm) with ~13 nm well-crystallized Bi 2 WO 6 nanoparticles, the as-synthesized Bi 2 WO 6 –TiO 2 nanofibers achieved an evidently increased specific surface area. Furthermore, corresponding photocatalytic experiments revealed that the optimal photodegradation rate from our designed heterostructure was as high as three times to that of pure TiO 2 nanofibers; this increase in optimal photodegradation rate is attributed to the relatively well-matched energy band between TiO 2 and Bi 2 WO 6 and hence an excellent separation efficiency of photogenerated electron–hole pairs in both ultraviolet and visible light regions, suggesting that the designed heterostructures can give better rise to practise photocatalysis under natural light.
Print ISSN:
0002-7820
Electronic ISSN:
1551-2916
Topics:
Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
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