New one-step hydrothermal synthesis of hydroxyapatite@titania nanocomposite: an approach to thermal phase durability and photocatalytic activity preservation of anatase

In this paper, hydroxyapatite (HAp) and titania (TiO₂) nanostructures, and HAp@TiO₂ nanocomposite were fabricated in the presence of the ammonia atmosphere, on the basis of a simple and inexpensive hydrothermal method, and identified by the x-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy-dispersive x-ray (EDX) techniques. Also, all of the samples were examined as the photocatalyst for the degradation of rhodamine-B dye in aqueous solution under UV irradiation. The experimental results revealed the effectiveness of utilized synthetic procedure as well as the potential of the as-synthesized products in the photocatalytic degradation of aqueous dye contaminators. Moreover, the increasing of the calcination temperature improved the crystallinity of product. In addition, it was observed that the anatase phase of titanium dioxide reaches to more thermal durability followed by more preservation of its catalytic activity via the composite formation in this manner. (paper)