One-Pot Approach for the Synthesis of Water-Soluble Anatase TiO2 Nanoparticle Cluster with Efficient Visible Light Photocatalytic Activity

Water contamination is one of the most serious problems today. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has received increasing attention on water decontamination. It will be a great contribution to fabricate water-soluble anatase TiO2 nanoparticles with efficient visible light photocatalytic activity for water decontamination. Herein, we present a simple one-pot approach to synthesize a water-soluble anatase TiO2 nanoparticle cluster with efficient visible light photocatalytic activity. PEG400 was used as a stabilizer to improve the aqueous dissolubility, while HCl was used to control the anatase phase of TiO2. In particular, titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) and titanium butoxide were cooperatively served as precursors of titanium. The results indicated that the crystals of TiO2 were stacked together to form big crystal clusters cooperatively using TiCl4 and titanium butoxide as precursors of titanium. The TiO2 crystal cluster presented good aqueous dissolubility, and the anatase phase was successfully controlled. It is interesting that the UV–vis absorbance of aqueous solution of the TiO2 crystal cluster was highly enhanced and expanded into the visible region. The TiO2 crystal cluster possessed efficient photocatalytic activities both under UV and visible light irradiation. The water-soluble TiO2 clusters have application prospect in water decontamination.