Rutile RuxTi1-xO2 nanobelts to enhance visible light photocatalytic activity

S Mihai; D L Cursaru; D Matei; A M Manta; R Somoghi; G Branoiu

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-55446-7

Rutile Ru_xTi_1-xO₂ nanobelts to enhance visible light photocatalytic activity

Sci Rep. 2019 Dec 11;9(1):18798. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-55446-7.

Authors

S Mihai¹, D L Cursaru², D Matei¹, A M Manta¹, R Somoghi³, G Branoiu¹

Affiliations

¹ Petroleum - Gas University of Ploiesti, 39 Bucharest Av., 100680, Ploiesti, Romania.
² Petroleum - Gas University of Ploiesti, 39 Bucharest Av., 100680, Ploiesti, Romania. dianapetre@upg-ploiesti.ro.
³ National Research and Development Institute for Chemistry and Petrochemistry, 202 Splaiul Independentei, 060021, Bucharest, Romania.

Abstract

We herein report on the synthesis by a facile sol-gel method without templates for preparing rutile Ru_xTi_1-xO₂ (x = 0.16; 0.07; 0.01) nanobelts with exposed (001) facets. The rutile nanobelts with exposure (001) facets, favor the separation photogenerated electron-hole pairs and inhibit the recombination of the electron-hole pairs resulting in the increase of the number of main superoxide and hydroxyl radicals. The photocatalytic properties of the rutile Ru_xTi_1-xO₂ nanobelts were evaluated by discoloring of MB (methylene blue) dye under sunlight irradiation at an intensity of 40000 lx. It was also done a thorough interface analysis to determine the band energy.