Controlled fabrication of nanosized TiO2 hollow sphere particles via acid catalytic hydrolysis/hydrothermal treatment

TiO2 hollow spheres of controlled size were synthesized by combined acid catalytic hydrolysis and hydrothermal treatment, which involves the deposition of an inorganic coating of TiO2 on the surface of carbon spheres prepared by a hydrothermal method and subsequent removal of the carbon spheres by calcination in air. The obtained TiO2 hollow spheres were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction. The results revealed that the size and surface morphology of the TiO2 hollow spheres can be controlled by adjusting the concentration of the aqueous solution of glucose used to produce the template carbon spheres. Increasing the concentration of the glucose solution increased the average diameter of the TiO2 hollow spheres from 190 to 300 nm. TiO2 hollow spheres prepared using a glucose solution with a concentration of 0.7 mol/L are uniform in size with a diameter of 220 nm and shell thickness of 28 nm. The phenol removal rate of the sample prepared by calcination at 600 °C is 1.35 times higher than that of TiO2 made by the same method without using the carbon template.

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► We synthesized TiO2 hollow spheres with controlled size.
► The size and morphology of the TiO2 hollow spheres could be controlled easily.
► Phase transformation of TiO2 and the removal of template achieved simultaneously.
► The prepared TiO2 hollow spheres exhibited high activity for phenol degradation.