An effective strategy for improving charge separation efficiency and photocatalytic degradation performance using a...

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) has attracted enormous interest in abundant photocatalytic reactions, but its photocatalytic efficiency is limited by its wide bandgap and the rapid recombination of electron-hole pairs. To overcome the disadvantages of its rapid electron-hole recombination rate, herein, oxidative TiO₂ was one-step fabricated using potassium permanganate (KMnO₄), exhibiting improved charge separation efficiency and photocatalytic degradation performance towards methyl orange (MO). Remarkably, the first-order photodegradation rate of oxidative TiO₂ is 3.68 times higher than that of pristine TiO₂ under the irradiation of simulated sunlight and 2.15 times higher under ultraviolet light. This exceptional photocatalytic activity is attributed to the additional oxygen doped into the interstices of the TiO₂ lattice, creating impurity states in the bandgap acting as trapping sites, thus facilitating charge separation. This work provides a promising strategy for the insertion of O atoms into the TiO₂ lattice and expands the photocatalytic application of the related materials.