Bionic titania coating carbon multi-layer material derived from natural leaf and its superior photocatalytic performance

Bionic titania coating carbon multi-layer material was fabricated by employing canna leaves as substrate and carbon precursor. Titania nanocrystals were assembled and coated on the natural films. The carbonation treatment under pure N2 atmosphere yielded the ultrathin multi-film hybrid material. The carbon layer was coated with small anatase titania crystallite (8-10 nm) and possessed a highly specific surface area of 248.3 m2 g−1. Examination using UV-visible spectrophotometer (UV-vis) showed that the band gap of the multi-layer material was reduced to 2.75 eV, and the hydrogen production by photocatalytic splitting of water under visible light irradiation was about 302 μmol g−1 after six hour.