Synthesis of hierarchical rose bridal bouquet- and humming-top-like TiO2 nanostructures and their shape-dependent degradation efficiency of dye

Novel hierarchical rose bridal bouquet- and humming-top-like nanostructured TiO2 were successfully prepared by the simple process with the hydrothermal temperature as the morphology-controlling factor. The gradual transformation from layered titanate to brookite phase was well consistent with the formation mechanism of the hierarchical morphologies. The three-dimensional flower bouquets built from the bunches of roses with surrounding fern fronds displayed the best adsorptivity and completely degraded methylene blue within 60 min under UV irradiation, whereas the humming-top geometry composed of anisotropically elongated spindle-like crystallites was detrimental to the dye photodegradation.

Graphical abstractNovel carnation-, rose bridal bouquet- and humming-top-like TiO2 were controlled by varying hydrothermal temperature and the flower superstructures exhibited high UV-photoactivity.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (86 K)Download as PowerPoint slideResearch highlights► Hierarchical TiO2 nanostructures were simply synthesized by hydrothermal process. ► Increasing hydrothermally treating temperature resulted in the carnation-, rose bridal bouquet-, and humming-top-shaped TiO2 nanostructures. ► Flower-like TiO2 performed the higher adsorbability and UV-photodegradation activity of dye than the other.