TiO2 microspheres with yolk shell structure were fabricated by using core/shell silica microspheres as templates. The core/shell silica was coated via a sol-gel route with a titanium alkoxide solution. Only silica shell was selectively etched by 1 M NaOH solution, leaving behind yolk shell (SiO2@TiO2) microsphere with void space between them. The resulting TiO2 microsphere has an average diameter of 500 nm with about 30 nm thickness of TiO2 shell, which was characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, and UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. We loaded Pt particles within the TiO2 shell (SiO2@Pt-TiO2) and also attached them outside the shell (SiO2@TiO2-Pt). Photocatalytic hydrogen production rates of SiO2@Pt-TiO2 were significantly enhanced compared with those of SiO2@TiO2-Pt. This difference is likely due presumably to light scattering efficiency of TiO2. The yolk shell microsphere is promising in wide applications such as nano-reactor, catalysis, and tunable photonic crystal.

Efficient photolysis of water by TiO<sub>2</sub> microspheres with yolk shell structure

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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Efficient photolysis of water by TiO2 microspheres with yolk shell structure

Efficient photolysis of water by TiO₂ microspheres with yolk shell structure