A facile method was used to prepare uniform Au NR/TiO2 and Au/Ag NR/TiO2 core-shell composite nanoparticles. Au/Ag NR/TiO2 nanoparticles were found to display significantly enhanced visible light photo-catalytic activity compared to Au NR/TiO2 and the commercially available TiO2 nanoparticles. The enhancement mechanism was ascribed to injection of hot electrons of photo-excited Au/Ag NRs to TiO...

The heterojunction effects of TiO2 nanotubes on photoconductive characteristics were investigated. For ITO/TiO2/Si diodes, the photocurrent is controlled either by the TiO2/Si heterojunction (p-n junction) or the ITO-TiO2 heterojunction (Schottky contact). In the short circuit (approximately 0 V) condition, the TiO2-Si heterojunction dominates the photocarrier transportation direction due to it...

We investigated the genotoxic responses to two types of TiO2 nanoparticles (<25 nm anatase: TiO(2)-An, and <100 nm rutile: TiO2-Ru) in human hepatoma HepG2 cells. Under the applied exposure conditions the particles were agglomerated or aggregated with the size of agglomerates and aggregates in the micrometer range, and were not cytotoxic. TiO2-An, but not TiO2-Ru, caused a persistent increase i...

Hetero-element doping (e.g., N, F, C) of TiO2 is inevitably accompanied by significantly increased structural defects due to the dopants' nature being foreign impurities. Very recently, in situ self-doping with homo-species (e.g., Ti(3+)) has been emerging as a rational solution to enhance TiO2 photoactivity within both UV and visible light regions. Herein we demonstrate that conventional elect...

The interaction strength of Au nanoparticles with pristine and nitrogen doped TiO2 nanowire surfaces was analysed using density functional theory and their significance in enhancing the solar driven photoelectrocatalytic properties was elucidated. In this article, we prepared 4-dimethylaminopyridine capped Au nanoparticle decorated TiO2 nanowire systems. The density functional theory calculatio...

The amorphous TiO2 derived from hydroxylation has become an effective approach for the enhancement of photocatalytic activity of TiO2 since a kind of special black TiO2 was prepared by engineering disordered layers on TiO2 nanocrystals via hydrogenation. In this contribution, we prepared totally amorphous TiO2 with various degrees of blackness by introducing hydroxyls via ultrasonic irradiation...