Hierarchical flower-like titanium phosphate derived from H-titanate nanotubes for photocatalysis

Nanosheet-assembled hierarchical flower-like titanium phosphate (TiP) is synthesized via hydrothermal treatment of H-titanate nanotubes (Ti-NT) at the optimized conditions of 0.1 M of H3PO4 and hydrothermal temperature of 130 A degrees C. A possible formation mechanism for the TiP flowers, involving the disintegration of Ti-NT and the growth and assembling of TiP nanosheets, is proposed. The main compositions of the uncalcined TiP flowers are titanium hydrogen phosphate hydrates (Ti(HPO4)(2)center dot xH(2)O), which can be transformed to titanium phosphate (TiP2O7) after high temperature calcination. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared TiP flowers is increased with the increased calcination temperature, which may be attributed to the better photocatalytic activity of TiP2O7 than Ti(HPO4)(2)center dot xH(2)O and the increased crystallization of TiP2O7.