Completely <001> oriented anatase TiO2 nanoarrays: topotactic growth and orientation-related efficient photocatalysis

Abstract

A TiO₂ film has been facilely grown on a Ti foil via a general and simple acid vapor oxidation (AVO) strategy. Based on detailed characterization by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we found that the TiO₂ film was composed of anatase nanoarrays highly oriented along their <001> direction, resulting in a large exposed {001} top surface on the film. The growth mechanism based on a topotactic transformation was proposed according to a careful study of time-dependent experimental results. Resulting from the evaluation of photocatalytic performance compared with a commercial TiO₂ photocatalyst (Degussa P25), the as-prepared oriented anatase TiO₂ film showed higher efficiency for degradation of atrazine and acid orange II (AOII). The performance of photocatalysis is highly relevant to the preferential orientation. The efficient photocatalysis could be attributed to the highly reactive {001} facets on the anatase nanoarrays with super-hydrophilicity.