Fabrication of Tiron TiO2 charge-transfer complex with excellent visible-light photocatalytic performance

A new charge-transfer(CT) complex (Tiron-TiO2) was prepared via the 1,2-dihydroxy-3,5-benzenedisulfonic acid disodium salt (Tiron) as chelate sensitizer. The phase structures and morphologies were measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results demonstrated that the as-prepared Tiron TiO2 is of anatase microspheres with size range between 300 and 350 nm. The analysis of FT-IR and XPS revealed that the binding structure of the Tiron TiO2 CT complex is of the characteristic of bidentate binuclear binding-bridging. UV vis analysis showed that the formation of CT complex on the surface of TiO2 through Tiron significantly extends the photoresponse of Tiron TiO2 nanoparticles to visible light range (400-600 nm). Compared with unmodified TiO2, Tiron-modified TiO2(Tiron-TiO2) exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue(MB) and three kind of antibiotics under visible light irradiation (A > 400 nm). (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.