Hydrothermal processing of dye-adsorbing one-dimensional hydrogen titanate

One-dimensional hydrogen titanate consisting of mixed nanobelts, nanotubes, and nanorods have been processed via hydrothermal followed by high temperature calcination. The processed products have been characterized via transmission electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, spectrophotometer, spectrofluorometer, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface-area measurement techniques for analyzing their morphology, structure, specific surface-area, band-gap, and photoluminescence. The dye-adsorption (in the dark) and photocatalytic activity (under ultraviolet-radiation exposure) of hydrothermally processed one-dimensional hydrogen titanate have been examined using methylene blue as a model catalytic dye agent. Under the present processing and test conditions, it is demonstrated that one-dimensional hydrogen titanate is a better dye-adsorbent than a photocatalyst due to its higher specific surface-area and relatively lower crystallinity.