Shape Tailored TiO₂ Nanostructures and Their Hybrids for Advanced Energy and Environmental Applications: A Review

Shape tailored TiO₂ nanostructures with various dimensionality (zero to three dimension) have unique physicochemical and functional properties that facilitates its efficient energy and environment applications, e.g., solar light driven photocatalytic hydrogen generation and decontamination of organic/inorganic toxic pollutants, CO₂ reduction into the hydrocarbon fuels, solar cells, supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries etc. However, the wide band gap nature and the fast recombination of the photogenerated charge carriers in TiO₂ usually limit its overall performance under solar light illumination. In this review, we present a state of the art on the fabrication techniques of shape tailored TiO₂ nanostructures and the strategies employed to make the system catalytically more efficient. Though shape tailored TiO₂ nanostructures with large specific surface area and highly energetic (001) facet exposed TiO₂ nanostructures (2D and 3D) can enhance the photocatalytic efficiency to a reasonable extent, further surface engineering is needed for the modification of the electronic band arrangement, visible light sensitization and efficient charge separation. Herein, TiO₂ heterostructures (HSs) with metal/non-metal doping, surface fluorination, plasmonic noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) and coupling with the narrow band gap suitable semiconductor (type-II) are discussed in details covering from zero dimensional to three dimensional heterostructures. The synthesis strategies, charge transfer mechanism and their participation in the photocatalysis are elaborated. Though one dimensional TiO₂ HSs have been widely studied, we present the recent development of critical surface engineering strategies of two and three dimensional systems, which give rise to the excellent properties including the enlargement of surface area, light absorption capability and efficient separation of electrons/holes resulting in the superior performance in advanced applications. Based on recent breakthroughs in the field, future directions and outlook of the field are presented at the end.