Improved interface compatibility of hollow H-Zr0.1Ti0.9O2 with UiO-66-NH2 via Zr-Ti bidirectional penetration to boost visible photocatalytic activity for acetaldehyde degradation under high humidity

Abstract Well-defined construction of interface compatibility is greatly helpful to overcome interface attenuation, featuring the combined advantages from different photo-catalysts. Herein, we proposed “Interfacial metal interpenetration” strategy to engineer a novel hetero-structural TiOx@UiO-66-NH2 photocatalyst (H-Zr0.1Ti0.9O2@U6N) having core-shell characters and well-organized interface compatibility for acetaldehyde (ALD) degradation. XRD refinement and XPS showed that Zr and Ti clusters were proved to induce the lattice expansion of H-Zr0.1Ti0.9O2 and lattice shrink of UiO-66-NH2, respectively. This strategy efficiently overcame transmission jam of photo-induced electrons, facilitating the separation efficiency of electron-holes. Furthermore, improved interface compatibility and hollow merits of H-Zr0.1Ti0.9@U6N jointly expedited the mass transfer of reactants, shortening the “adsorption-catalysis” pathway. Therefore, H-Zr0.1Ti0.9O2@U6N showed about two orders of magnitude increase of catalytic kinetics (195 × 10−3 min-1) compared to H-TiO2 (0.002 min-1) at 75 % relative humidity (RH), far beyond noble metal modified photo-catalyst Ag@TiO2 (11.9 × 10−3 min-1). The “Interfacial metal interpenetration” strategy can effectively improve material compatibility and award multiplying effects for different photo-catalysts.