Hydrothermal fabrication of rutile TiO_2 submicrospheres on wood surface: An efficient method to prepare UV-protective wood

摘要

In this work, wood materials with UV-resistant ability were successfully fabricated by depositing submicrometer-sized rutile TiO_2 spheres on wood surface using a facile and one-pot hydrothermal method. The prepared samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transformation infrared (ATR-FTIR) techniques. ATR-FTIR spectra demonstrated that chemical bonds were formed at the interfaces between rutile TiO_2 and wood owing to the presence of hydroxyl groups. Accelerated aging was used to measure the UV resistance of the original wood (OW), anatase TiO_2/wood (ATW) and rutile TiO_2/wood (RTW). Comparison with OW and ATW samples, RTW exhibited more UV-resistant ability due to high UV light absorption capability, superior light scattering property and high recombination of the photogenerated electron and hole of the submicrometer-sized rutile TiO_2 spheres on the wood surface.