Fabrication of mixed-crystalline-phase spindle-like TiO2 for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production

The fabrication of heterojunction between different crystalline phases has been considered to be an effective strategy for promoting charge separation during photocatalytic process. Herein, the mixed-crystalline-phase (MC), spindle-like TiO2 was prepared with a simple hydrothermal method, which was followed by a series of calcination processes. The final products are composed of two crystalline phases including anatase and brookite. The anatase/brookite ratio of the TiO2 is tuned by varying the calcination temperature. The MC TiO2 that consisted of 85.5% anatase and 14.5% brookite has the highest rate of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (290.2 mu mol h(-1)) compared to the purely anatase TiO2. This is attributed to the mixed-phase heterojunction structure that improves electron-hole separation, and therefore, enhances the photocatalytic hydrogen production.