Facile synthesis of TiO₂/trititanate heterostructure with enhanced photoelectric efficiency for an improved photocatalysis

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • TiO₂/trititanate heterostructure was prepared by a facile hydrothermal method. • Trititanate can be formed via the direct conversion of surface TiO₂. • The coupled nanostructure possesses enhanced adsorption ability than the bare TiO₂. • Photocurrent of TiO₂/trititanate is ca. 2 times as high as that of TiO₂. • TiO₂/trititanate nanostructure exhibits good reusability for the removal of RhB. - Abstract: TiO₂/trititanate photocatalyst was prepared by alkaline hydrothermal treatment of TiO₂, and characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Raman etc. The photocatalytic activities of catalysts were evaluated by the photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB). It is found that the heterostructure can be directly formed via the conversion of surface TiO₂ into trititanate. The coupled nanostructure possesses enhanced adsorption ability for RhB as compared with the raw TiO₂, owing to the formation of an increased amount of hydroxyl groups on the prepared catalyst surface. Besides, the generated trititanate can successfully introduce a shallow energy level in the coupled composite, which results in the improvement of separation efficiency of photoinduced electron–hole pairs. In the degradation experiments, TiO₂/trititanate exhibits much higher photocatalytic activity than the bare TiO₂. These advantages of the coupled nanostructure in adsorption capacity and photoelectric efficiency may make it a wider application for the removal of organic pollutants