The development of semiconductor photocatalysts with highly reactive facets exposed has great potential to improve their photocatalytic reactivity. We report the synthesis of mesoporous rutile TiO 2 single crystals with tunable ratios of {110} and {111} facets through the seeded-template hydrothermal method. With increasing the amount of morphology controlling agent NaF,the facet ratio of {111} to {110} increases,and eventually the mesoporous rutile TiO 2 single crystals with wholly exposed {111} reactive facets are obtained. The resultant faceted mesoporous single crystals exhibit a superior photocatalytic performance of hydrogen evolution to mesoporous single crystals with a large percentage of thermodynamically stable {110} facets,as well as the solid rutile single crystals. ？ 2015,Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences.
A film of mesoporous single-crystal rutile TiO2 rod arrays supported on a transparent conductive glass substrate was synthesized with the assistance of a template layer of closely packed silica nanospheres. This film was used as a photoanode and showed significant improvement for photoelectrochemical water oxidation compared with a reference film of nonporous single-crystal rutile TiO2rod arrays.
