| 초록 |
Semiconductor-mediated heterogeneous photocatalysis powered by the abundant solar energy has been continuously developed as a potentially promising alternative for the environ-mental contaminants treatment, water splitting, and photoelectro-chemical conversion. Among the various semiconductor materials, TiO2 is by far the most widely researched photocatalyst due to its excellent photodecomposition ability, high chemical and thermal stability, non-toxicity, low cost, abundant resource, and environment friendly advantages. In this work, three dimensional TiO2 nanostructures were grown using microwave assisted hydrothermal technique. The samples were characterized in detail by XRD, SEM, EDX, and UV–Vis spectrometry techniques. Besides, photocatalytic characteristics were evaluated through measuring the degradation rate of methylene blue to establish a correlation between structure and photochemical properties. We were able to control morphology and growth mode of TiO2 nanostructures by changing the reaction pressure and reaction time during synthesis. The samples possessed a rutile matrix and the crystallinity of the samples was significantly enhanced when the reaction pressure was increased from 125 to 200 psi. FE-SEM images show that nanostructures consist of several nanorods coming out of a single core and have very sharp edges. It was observed that by changing the reaction temperature the aspect ratio can be modified. The sample with high aspect ratio shows enhanced photocatalytic activity. We established a correlation between aspect ratio and photocatalytic characteristics of TiO2 nanostructures. |
