Efficient fabrication of ZrO2-doped TiO2 hollow nanospheres with enhanced photocatalytic activity of rhodamine B degradation

Chuanzhi Sun; Lichen Liu; Lei Qi; Hao Li; Hongliang Zhang; Changshun Li; Fei Gao; Lin Dong

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2011.07.055

Efficient fabrication of ZrO2-doped TiO2 hollow nanospheres with enhanced photocatalytic activity of rhodamine B degradation

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2011 Dec 15;364(2):288-97. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2011.07.055. Epub 2011 Jul 27.

Authors

Chuanzhi Sun¹, Lichen Liu, Lei Qi, Hao Li, Hongliang Zhang, Changshun Li, Fei Gao, Lin Dong

Affiliation

¹ Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, PR China.

PMID: 21945671
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2011.07.055

Abstract

ZrO(2)-doped TiO(2) hollow nanospheres with anatase phase are efficiently fabricated via functionalized negatively charged polystyrene (PS) spheres without any surfactant or polyelectrolyte. The resulting Ti(1-)(x)Zr(x)O(2) (hereafter denoted as TZ) hollow nanospheres are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Laser Raman spectroscopy (LRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), nitrogen sorption, and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis). The Zr(4+) incorporation decreases the anatase crystallite size, increases the specific surface area, and changes the pore size distribution. Furthermore, it induces enrichment of electron charge density around Ti(4+) ions and blueshift of absorption edges. The TZ hollow nanospheres doped with moderate ZrO(2) (molar ratio, Ti:Zr=10:1) exhibit better photocatalytic activity than the other samples for the degradation of rhodamine B in aqueous solution, which is correlated with the effect of Zr(4+) doping on the physicochemical properties in terms of surface structures, phase structures, and the electronic structures.