Comparative study of photocatalytic performance of titanium oxide spheres assemblied by nanosized structures

(2012) Comparative study of photocatalytic performance of titanium oxide spheres assembled by nanorods, nanoplates and nanosheets. Notice: Changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing and formatting may not be reflected in this document. For a definitive version of this work, please refer to the published source: Comparative study of photocatalytic performance of titanium oxide spheres assemblied by nanosized structures TiO 2 spheres constructed by nanorods, nanoplates and nanosheets have been fabricated by facile hydrothermal/solvothermal methods. Three samples were thoroughly characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method and UV spectra. The surface area of spheres assembled by nanosheets is 83.9 m 2 g 1 , which is larger than that by nanorods (10.8 m 2 g 1) and nanoplates (6.31 m 2 g 1). The photocatalysis performance, in terms of the decomposition rate of methyl orange, was evaluated in these three samples under UV irradiation. The best photoactivitie was observed in the samples assembled by nanosheets.