Morphological effect of titanate nanostructures on the photocatalytic degradation of crystal violet

Abstract

The heterogeneous photocatalysis using semiconductor nanocrystals is an important process in the field of water treatment since it is a low cost, environmentally friendly, and zero waste technique. In this work, titanate nanostructures (sheets, tubes, and wires) were prepared by simple hydrothermal method. All samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area analysis, and Zetasizer. The results revealed that tuning the morphology of TiO2 changed the activity of the prepared nanostructures, where titanate nanowires exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity toward crystal violet dye, reaching 100% at pH 3 under ultraviolet illumination for 35 min.