Facile synthesis of bird’s nest-like TiO2 microstructure with exposed (001) facets for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue

The scrupulous design of hierarchical structure and highly active crystal facets exposure is essential for the creation of photocatalytic system. However, it is still a big challenge for scrupulous design of TiO 2 architectures. In this paper, bird’s nest-like anatase TiO 2 microstructure with exposed highly active (001) surface has been successfully synthesized by a facile one-step solvothermal method. Methylene blue (MB) is chosen as a model pollutant to evaluate photocatalytic activity of as-obtained TiO 2 samples. The results show that the photocatalytic activity of the bird’s nest-like sample is more excellent than P25 in the degradation of MB due to high specific surface area and highly active (001) crystal facets exposure when tested under simulated solar light. Besides, it can be readily separated from the photocatalytic system by sedimentation after photocatalytic reaction, which is a significant advantage against conventional powder photocatalyst. The bird’s nest-like microspheres with novel structure may have potential application in photocatalysis and other fields.