title: Synthesis of F-doped flower-like TiO2 nanostructures with high photoelectrochemical activity.
abstract: We report on a novel and facile approach for the direct growth of F-doped flower-like TiO(2) nanostructures on the surface of Ti in HF solutions under low-temperature hydrothermal conditions. The influence of the experimental parameters such as temperature, reaction duration, and the HF concentration on the morphology and photoelectrocatalytic activity of the formed F-doped flower-like TiO(2) nanostructures was systematically studied. The presence of HF and the reaction time play an important role in the formation of the F-doped flower-like TiO(2) nanostructures. The synthesized novel F-doped TiO(2) flower-like nanomaterials possess good crystallinity and exhibit high photoelectrochemical activity for water-splitting and photodegradation of organic pollutants compared with P-25, which is currently considered to be one of the best commercial TiO(2) photocatalysts. The approach described in this study provides a simple and novel method to synthesize F-doped TiO(2) nanostructured materials that are ready for practical applications such as the photodegradation of wastewater.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7B 5E1, Canada.
authors.forename: Guosheng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Jingpeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Dan F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Aicheng
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chen