Enhanced photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange in TiO2(B)@anatase heterostructure nanocomposites prepared by a facile hydrothermal method

In this work, one-dimensional TiO2(B)@anatase heterostructure nanocomposites were synthesized via a facile hydrothermal process in ethanol/water solution with the aid of polyvinylpyrrolidone. TiO2(B) nanobelts were uniformly coated with an anatase nanocrystals shell. The shell thickness can be tuned from 10 nm to 30 nm. The energy bandgap at the heterostructure interface favors the transferring of the photo-induced holes in anatase to TiO2(B) nanobelts, thus the charge recombination can be effectively suppressed. The nanocomposites showed superior photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange due to the enhanced charge separation efficiency. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.