Titania nanosheet photocatalysts with dominantly exposed (001) reactive facets for photocatalytic NOx abatement

Abstract The particular role of reactive facets TiO 2 on photocatalytic NOx removal was systematically explored. The photo selective catalytic reduction (photo-SCR) of NOx was studied using titania nanosheet photocatalysts. The titania nanosheets were synthesized by hydrothermal method with titanium n -butoxide (TBOT) and hydrofluoric acid (HF). The synthetic pathway of transformation from TBOT (Ti precursor) to TiO 2 nanosheet was clearly revealed that TiOF 2 is the intermediate during the hydrothermal process. The NO conversion of titania nanosheets was found to be higher than the conversion of commercial P25 and TiO 2 synthesized by the sol-gel method. Moreover, one of the titania nanosheets, FT1.5, displayed the highest efficiency of NOx removal at 393 K, but there was a trade-off relationship between NO conversion and NO 2 selectivity. Our results suggest that the optimal synthetic process for highest efficiency of TiO 2 nanosheet in photocatalysis is to use TBOT and HF with the F/Ti atomic ratio = 1.5 (FT1.5) at 453 K for 24 h. In summary, the synthesized TiO 2 nanosheet exhibits great potential to be applied in NOx abatement.