Preparation and Application of Titanate Nanotubes on Dye Degradation from Aqueous Media by UV Irradiation

Titanate nanotubes were synthesized by a hydrothermal method using commercial tio2 powder and then used as a photocatalyst. the titanate nanotubes were synthesized by varying the hydrothermal temperature from 110°c to 180°c. the morphological changes and phase transformation of the tio2 nanotubes were analyzed by x-ray diffraction (xrd),scanning electron microscopy (sem),and transmission electron microscopy (tem). the particles' scattering behavior was investigated by raman studies,and the surface area of the nanotubes was determined by a brunauer,emmett,and teller (bet) analysis. comparative studies show that the surface area of nanotubes increases with increasing temperature up to 130°c. the catalytic behavior of the synthesized nanotubes was also studied. the as-prepared titanate nanotubes were applied to methylene blue (mb,an organic dye) degradation in aqueous media by uv irradiation. approximately 99% of the dye was removed from the aqueous media using 2 g/l titanate nanotube when the initial dye concentration was 9 mg/l. the total irradiation time was 2 h. © 2015 rui liu et al.