Fabrication of monolithic three dimensional TiO2 with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Abstract

TiO2 has attracted considerable interest for use in energy harvesting, water purification applications. Especially, tts surface photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical properties have made it at ideal material for solar cell, self-cleaning system and photocatalytic system. Recent interest in water purification make people to investigate the photocatalytic effect of TiO2 and numerous researches have demonstrated enhanced efficiency of photocatalysis by increasing the surface area of TiO2 (i.e. nanostructured TiO2 in the form of nanoparticles, nanorods, and nanowires). However despite the useful photocatalytic performance of nanostructured particle, the subsequent difficulty of recollection and reuse of the TiO2 is a barrier to the practical application of the TiO2 based photocatalysis system. Here we successfully fabricate monolithic, three dimensional(3D) TiO2 nanostructure with high uniformity over large areas (~1X1 inch) through the processes of Proximity field nanoPatterning(PnP), atomic layer deposition(ALD), and template removal. The high surface area and enhanced light absorption of 3D TiO2 by ordered 3D nanostructure, increase photocatalytic efficiency. Also the fabricated 3D TiO2 nanostructures can be reused in the purification system with negligible decrease in performance. Through our monolithic 3D TiO2, we will facilitate high efficient and reusable photocatalyst for water purification system.