Mechanistic understanding of the increased photoactivity of TiO2 nanosheets upon tantalum doping

Doping of Ta5+ into TiO2 replaces Ti4+ to decrease the recombination rate and elongate the electron lifetime due to the formation of shallow electron traps from Ti3+ defects. The elongated electron lifetime increases electron population and photocatalytic activity.

Preparation of LDO@TiO2 core-shell nanosheets for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutions

TiO2-based nanosheets materials with core-shell structure are expected to be one of the promising photocatalysts to degradation of organic pollutions. However, it is a challenge to synthesis of TiO2 shell on functional core materials by desired nucleation and growth process. Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are considered as ideal platforms to in-situ grow TiO2 and further serve as additional components to construct heterojunction to improve the separation of photo-generated charge carriers. In this work, we report the design and fabrication of anatase TiO2 coated ZnAl-layered double oxide (LDO@TiO2) nanosheets, which involves the in-situ growth of TiO2 on ZnAl-LDH followed by a subsequent calcination treatment. The resulting LDO@TiO2 photocatalyst gives typical core-shell nanosheets morphology with mesoporous structure, which exhibiting excellent photodegradation and mineralization efficiency for organic pollutions.