Prolonged Electron Lifetime in Ordered TiO2 Mesophyll Cell-Like Microspheres for Efficient Photocatalytic Water Reduction and Oxidation

Abstract

Mesoporous integrated TiO2 spheres composed of numerous orderly arranged nanocrystals with a reduced lattice-lattice interface connection, display an almost four times longer electron lifetime (350 ps) than the randomly aggregated nanoparticles (80 ps), and hence enhance the corresponding photocatalytic H2 and O2 generation.

Keywords: TiO2 photocatalysts; anti-aggregation; electron lifetimes; hierarchical structures; water splitting.