Ethanol assisted synthesis of anatase nanobelts with improved crystallinity and photocatalytic activity

摘要

A modified alkaline hydrothermal method via adding the ethanol treatment to the intermediates was developed to synthesize TiO_2 nanobelts, in which the main phase is anatase. Compared with the previous reported TiO_2 nanobelts obtained without the ethanol treatment, the new TiO_2 nanobelts obtained through the ethanol assisted route are with much improved anatase crystallinity and a sharply reduced amount of TiO_2-B phase, as well as a significantly higher photocatalytic activity that is even better than P25 for degrading Rhodamine-B under the ultraviolet light irradiation, which apparently correlates to the increased contents and crystallinity of anatase. The mechanism of ethanol treatment is also discussed based on the FTIR results.