Amorphous carbon inhibited TiO2 phase transition in aqueous solution and its application in photocatalytic degradation of organic dye.

Compared with anatase phase TiO 2 , rutile phase TiO 2 is not suitable to be used as high-performance catalyst due to its disadvantages such as low carrier mobility and few active sites. However, rutile phase TiO 2 can be easily generated in the chlorine-containing solution during hydrothermal process, which is a major problem for the preparation of high-performance TiO 2 based photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic devices. In this study, we demonstrate a suppression phenomenon of anatase-to-rutile phase transition in aqueous solution induced by amorphous carbon. Amorphous carbon formed by the carbonization of glucose adhered on the primary TiO 2 grains, inhibiting the generation of rutile phase TiO 2 nanostructures in a certain degree. During subsequent calcination process, anatase phase TiO 2 formed gradually. And TiO 2 phase junction was obtained. The TiO 2 phase junction exhibits enhanced photocatalytic degradation performance of organic dyes due to the effective separation of carriers and abundant active sites. This study provides a new and feasible way for controllable fabrication of high performance anatase phase TiO 2 based photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic devices. An inhibited anatase-to-rutile phase transition process in aqueous solution has been observed, and amorphous carbon material plays an important role in this process. The obtained phase junction displays interesting photocatalytic degradation performance of rhodamine B dye. Image 1 • An inhibited A-R phase transition process in aqueous solution has been observed. • Amorphous carbon material plays an important role in this inhibition process. • The obtained TiO 2 phase junction exhibits interesting photocatalytic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]