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Facile Fabrication and Characterization of Three-Dimensional Ordered Films of TiO2 Hollow-Spheres

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Abstract

High-quality three-dimensional ordered TiO2 hollow-spheres (3DOH-TiO2) materials were fabricated using polystyrene spheres colloidal crystals (ca. 290 nm in center-to-center distance) as sacrificial templates and titanium tetrachloride as titanium sources. The obtained samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and N2 adsorption–desorption. The results showed that the films are composed of a closely packed, hexagonal array of the TiO2 hollow-spheres with a center–center separation of ca. 260 nm. The homogeneity in the shell thickness (ca. 40 nm), the physical contact among adjacent hollow-spheres, and the long-range order in the sample were also confirmed by FESEM and TEM analysis. HRTEM results indicated the walls of the hollow-spheres consist of anatase TiO2 nanoparticles (15–20 nm). The porous framework structure of the 3DOH-TiO2 films was further characterized using N2 physical adsorption, and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller specific surface area and the total pore volume are around 77.72 m2/g and 0.262 cm3/g, respectively.

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported financially by the Applied Basic Research Project of Suzhou City (SYG201316) and the Key Laboratory for Environment Functional Materials of Jiangsu Province (SJHG1302).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, Jiangsu, China

    Yang Chen & Zhaofang Tang

  2. Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215009, Jiangsu, China

    Zhigang Chen

  3. Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Environment Functional Materials, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215009, Jiangsu, China

    Yang Chen & Zhigang Chen

Authors
  1. Yang Chen
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  2. Zhaofang Tang
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  3. Zhigang Chen
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Correspondence to Yang Chen.

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Chen, Y., Tang, Z. & Chen, Z. Facile Fabrication and Characterization of Three-Dimensional Ordered Films of TiO2 Hollow-Spheres. J Inorg Organomet Polym 25, 780–786 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10904-014-0159-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10904-014-0159-0

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