Octahedral Anatase Titania as Efficient Photocatalyst: Influence of Preparation Conditions

Octahedral anatase particles (OAPs) belonging to faceted titania photocatalysts exhibit one of the highest photocatalytic activities among various titania photocatalysts, probably due to hindered recombination of charge carriers resulting from low content of defects (recombination centers). In this study, OAPs have been examined for oxidative decomposition of acetic acid, dehydrogenation of methanol and bacteria inactivation. OAPs were prepared from partly protonated potassium nanowires by hydrothermal reaction (HT) at various experimental conditions, i.e., the influences of HT temperature and content of reaction reagents were studied in detail. The morphology, composition and crystal structure of the products were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and time-resolved microwave conductivity (TRMC) method. It was found that all parameters during HT influenced simultaneously the morphology of obtained products, and even slight change in one of them could result in significant change in the properties, and thus photocatalytic activities. Moreover, it was shown that titania morphology was a key-factor for photocatalytic activity for decomposition of both organic compounds and microorganisms. Although, an imperfection in octahedral shape (semi-OAPs) did not influence the efficiently for decomposition of organic compounds, it had tremendous negative impact on antimicrobial performance, probably due to hindered adsorption of bacterial cells on the photocatalyst surface (preferential on {101} facets).