Synthesis of immobilized TiO2 nanowires by anodic oxidation and their gas phase photocatalytic properties

In this paper, anodic oxidation method was successfully employed to the direct growth of immobilized TiO2 nanowires on titanium foil in ethylene glycol electrolyte solution contained HF and water. The morphologies of the TiO2 nanowires could be tuned by changing the content of HF and water. The structures, morphologies and optical properties of TiO2 nanowires were characterized by SEM, XRD, UV–vis and PL. It was found that the nanowires originally grew from the splitting of TiO2 nanotubes. The gas phase photocatalytic activities were investigated by photodegradation of gaseous toluene under UV irradiation, and irregular TiO2 nanowires showed the best photocatalytic ability.