One-step hydrothermal synthesis of photocatalytically active TiO2/carbon composite

Abstract

TiO2/carbon composite (TiO2/HTC), synthesized by hydrothermal carbonization, was characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms and X-ray diffraction. The possibility of using TiO2/HTC as photocatalysts for UV and visible light assisted degradation of methylene blue in aqueous solution was examined. It was found that carbon presence in TiO2/HTC leads to the higher porosity and increase in the share of photocatalytically active anatase phase. Compared to the hydrothermally synthesized TiO2, TiO2/HTC showed the superior photocatalytic activity under UV irradiation. In addition, TiO2/HTC show high recycling ability with degradation ratio of methylene blue higher than 81 % after five cycles. Also, TiO2/HTC is expected to be a promising candidate for photocatalytic processes using visible light.