Preparation of high performance fibrous titania photocatalysts by the solvothermal reaction of protonated form of tetratitanate

The phase transformation behaviors of fibrous protonated form of tetratitanate under solvothermal conditions in water, methanol and ethanol were focused on to form high performance titania photocatalyst. Regardless of the reaction solvents, the products showed similar fibrous morphology to the raw material. However, the crystalline phase of the product greatly changed depending on the properties of the solvent, i.e., the phase transformation was slowed down in low dielectric constant solvents. The obtained fibrous TiO2 samples showed high photocatalytic activity for the oxidative photo-decomposition of NO gas. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.