TAN Ling, DONG Weixia, LIU Kun, LUO Ting, LI Ping, GU Xingyong

(School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jingdezhen Ceramic University, Jingdezhen 333403, Jiangxi, China)

Abstract: TiO_2-x/Al₂O₃ heterostructure composite photocatalyst was in-situ prepared through the thermal decomposition of aluminum titanate (Al₂TiO₅) by using carbon powder embedding sintering technique. The effects of heat treatment temperature on phase composition, micro-morphology and UV-vis absorption performance of the TiO_2-x/Al₂O₃ samples were studied. The photocatalytic performance of the samples was characterized in terms of the degradation rate of methylene blue (MB) dye. It was found that the sample decomposed at 1100 ℃ exhibited optimal photocatalytic performance, with a MB dye degradation rate of 99.8% after visible light irradiation for 5 h. At the same time, there existed interfacial interaction between the two phases after in-situ decomposition, which improved the separation efficiency of the photogenerated electrons and holes and hence enhanced the photocatalytic activity.

Key words: in-situ thermal decomposition; TiO_2-x/Al₂O₃ ; heterostructure; interfacial interaction; visible-light; photocatalytic