Morphological control and photodegradation behavior of rutile TiO2 prepared by a low-temperature process

Flower-like rutile titania nanocrystals were prepared via a simple aqueous-phase stirring for 24 h at a low temperature of 75 °C, employing only TiCl4, HCl as the starting materials. XRD result proved the formation of rutile TiO2. The observations from TEM and SEM showed that the products were large-scale flower-shaped structures composed of radial nanorods. Comparative experiments demonstrated that pinecone-like, needlelike rutile TiO2 could be easily achieved by varying the volume ratio of TiCl4 / H2O. The growth mechanisms of TiO2 nanostructures prepared under different conditions and their photodegradation behavior were also discussed. It was found that the flower-like structures exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity in the photodegradation of aqueous brilliant red X-3B solution.