Hydrothermal preparation of TiO2 nanotubes and its photocatalytic performance

Abstract:

TiO₂ nanotubes were prepared through hydrothermal method with TiO₂ power in high concentration NaOH solution. XRD, SEM, TEM and UV-Vis were adopted to analyze as-prepared TiO₂ nanotubes. The influence of the factors, such as NaOH concentration, reaction time and temperature, on the structure and properties of TiO₂ nanotubes were investigated. The results show that the uniform TiO₂ nanotubes are obtained under optimum preparation conditions: 10mol/L of NaOH, 20h of reaction time and 160℃ of reaction temperature. TiO₂ nanotubes exhibit higher photocatalytic activity, and the degradation rate of methyl orange (MO) in aqueous solution reached 75.48% after UV irradiation for 30 min.

Key words:TiO₂; Nanotube; Hydrothermal method; Photocatalysis