Effects of structure of anodic TiO₂nanotube arrays on photocatalytic activity for the degradation of 2,3-dichlorophenol in aqueous solution

Abstract

In this study titanium dioxide nanotube (TNT) arrays were prepared by an anodic oxidation process with post-calcination. The morphology and structure of the TNT films were studied by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Photocatalytic activity of the TNT films was evaluated in terms of the degradation of 2,3-dichlorophenol in aqueous solution under UV light irradiation. The effects of the nanotube structure including tube length and tube wall thickness, and crystallinity on the photocatalytic activity were investigated in detail. The results showed that the large specific surface area, high pore volume, thin tube wall, and optimal tube length would be important factors to achieve the good performance of TNT films. Moreover, the TNT films calcined at 500°C for 1 h with the higher degree of crystallinity exhibited the higher photocatalytic activity than other TNT films calcined at 300 and 800°C. Consequently, these results indicate that the optimization of TiO₂nanotube structures is critical to achieve the high performance of photocatalytic reaction.