Impact of calcination of hydrothermally synthesized TiO2 nanowires on their photocatalytic efficiency

The phase transformations of hydrothermally prepared H2Ti3O7 nanowires (NWs) upon calcination at different temperatures were addressed to interpret the impact of H2Ti3O7 NWs crystallization on their photocatalytic performance for resorcinol photodegradation under UV illumination. Bicrystalline brookite/anatase NWs were obtained by calcination at 800 degrees C, which indicated a superior photocatalyst compared with rutile/brookite NWs or TiO2(B)/anatase NWs as well as commercial P-25 photocatalysts. The brookite/anatase NWs photocatalyst exhibited high photocatalytic efficiency up to 99% owing to its long charge transfer channels and high resorcinol adsorption capacity, while the commercial P-25 photocatalyst is 72% within 3 h. The rate constant k (min(-1)) value of brookite/anatase heterostructure NWs is greater than that of TiO2(B)/anatase NWs and commercial P-25 for 5.6 and 2 times, respectively. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.