The Synthesis and Photocatalytic activity of Carbon Nanotube-mixed TiO₂ Nanotubes

ISSN 1225-7591(Print) / ISSN 2287-8173(Online)

The Synthesis and Photocatalytic activity of Carbon Nanotube-mixed TiO 2 Nanotubes

Chun Woong Park, Young Do Kim, Tohru Sekino

, and Se Hoon Kim

*

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea

a

The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, Mihogaoka 8-1, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan

b

Materials Convergence & Design R&D Center, KATECH, 303 Poongsero, Poongsemyeon, Cheonan-si, Chungnam 31214, Republic of Korea

(Received August 11, 2017; Revised August 21, 2017; Accepted August 22, 2017)

···

Abstract The formation mechanism and photocatalytic properties of a multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)/TiO

- based nanotube (TNTs) composite are investigated. The CNT/TNT composite is synthesized via a solution chemical route. It is confirmed that this 1-D nanotube composite has a core-shell nanotubular structure, where the TNT surrounds the CNT core. The photocatalytic activity investigated based on the methylene blue degradation test is superior to that of with pure TNT. The CNTs play two important roles in enhancing the photocatalytic activity. One is to act as a template to form the core-shell structure while titanate nanosheets are converted into nanotubes. The other is to act as an electron reservoir that facilitates charge separation and electron transfer from the TNT, thus decreasing the electron- hole recombination efficiency.

Keywords: CNT-TNT composite, Hydrothermal synthesis, Photocatalyst, TiO

nanotube, Core-shell structure

···

1. Introduction

Titanium dioxide (TiO

) has unique physicochemical properties and then is widely investigated and used in many applications such as photocatalyst, Li-battery anode, dye-sensitized solar cell, antimicrobial coating, gas sensor, hydrogen storage, and biocompatible surface due to their high photocatalytic activity, natural abundance, chemical stability and nontoxicity [1, 2].

Recently, TiO

-based nanotubes have attracted much attention due to the unique combination of physico- chemical properties and low-dimensional nanostructures of TiO

[3-5]. It has been prepared by replica- or tem- plate-assisted methods [5-9], templateless methods via a solution chemical synthesis [4, 6, 9-11], hydrothermal treatment [12, 13], and electrochemical anodic oxidation [14-16]. Among these, the solution chemical method, first reported by Kasuga et al. [4, 10], has the advantage of simple and low-cost fabrication of nanostructured crys- tallite materials. This synthesis easily allows to obtain

TNTs with diameter of around 10 nm and to hybridize with other materials by relatively low-temperature pro- cessing which is based on the refluxing TiO

powder in the high concentration alkaline solution (10~20 M) at 100-150

C. On the other hand, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [17, 18] are also well known one-dimensional (1-D) nano- materials, and that not only can they facilitate the elec- tron-hole separation but also enhance the light absorption of the photocatalysts [12, 19], hence the synthesis of CNT-TiO

nanoparticles are reported in some studies [13, 20]. In spite of unique characteristics of these two 1-D nanomaterials, as far as the authors know, there is no report on the synthesis and characterization of highly structure-controlled hybrids of TNT and CNT with core- shell morphology.

In this study, we demonstrate a simple route to fabri- cate the 1-D nanostructured core-shell composite of CNT and TNT for enhancing the photocatalytic properties.

This composite was synthesized via the solution chemi- cal synthesis route. The microstructural characteristics of

*Corresponding Author: Se Hoon Kim, TEL: +82-41-559-3377, FAX: +82-41-559-3288, E-mail: [email protected]

as-synthesized CNTs and TNTs composite, compared with pure TNTs, were investigated by several analytical techniques such as X-ray diffraction, scanning and trans- mission electron microscopy, thermo-gravimetric analy- sis, Raman spectroscopy, and the formation mechanism of as-prepared composite was discussed. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of CNT and TNT composite was also discussed by the results of adsorption and degrada- tion of methylene blue.

2. Materials and Methods

The commercial anatase-phase TiO

(Wako pure chemi- cal, Japan, 99%) powder and MWCNTs (Sigma-Aldrich, USA, OD=10-20 nm, ID=5-10 nm, >95%) were used as starting materials. Next, MWCNT-TNT composite, hereaf- ter designated CNT-TNT, which had molar ratio of 5% of CNT to TNT was synthesized via a soft hydrothermal route. CNTs were dispersed in distilled (DI) water for 30 min by ultrasonic and magnetic stirring to achieve homo- geneous dispersions. TiO

powder was added to the CNT dispersions, and then NaOH was added to reach 10 M NaOH solution, and the mixture was refluxed at control temperature of 135

C for 24 h. The resultant product was washed with DI water and was treated 0.1 M HCl. The treated product was washed again with DI water until the solution conductivity reached below 10 μS/cm. Finally, the synthesized powder was dried in an oven at 70

C for 48 h.

The phase analysis of synthesized samples was con- ducted by powder X-ray diffractometer (XRD, D8 Advance, Bruker AXS GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany) using Cu K α radiation. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) images were acquired using Nova NanoSEM 450 (FEI, Hillsboro, USA). Microstructure observation and com- position analysis were performed by a transmission elec- tron microscopy (TEM, JEM-2100F, JEOL, Japan) with an accelerating voltage of 200 kV equipped with an energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The thermogravi- metric (TG, TG-DTA2000SA, MAC Science, Japan) analysis was performed under a heating rate of 1

C/min up to 800

C with Air flow of 1 l/min. RAMAN spectra of samples were acquired by NRS-2000A (JASCO, Japan).

The adsorption and degradation properties of TNT and CNT-TNT samples were analyzed using methylene blue (MB, Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Japan). 20 mg of

each sample was dispersed in 100 ml of 10 mg/l MB solu- tion. The adsorption was measured for 4 h in the dark, and then the degradation was evaluated in the UV light irradia- tion (mercury–xenon lamp with a center wavelength of 365 nm, UVF-204S, SAN-EI Electric, Japan) at room temperature. The MB solution was analyzed with UV-vis spectrophotometer (UV mini-1240, Shimadzu, Japan) by measuring the absorption band of 663 nm.

3. Results and Discussion

The solution chemical synthesis process successfully provided dark grayish powdery products. As shown in Fig. 1, FESEM observation was performed to confirm the morphologies of TNT and CNT-TNT samples. Fig.

1(a) shows a typical morphology of as-synthesized TNT sample. The nanotubes were bundled each other from

Fig. 1. FE-SEM images of (a) as-synthesized pure TNT and

(b) CNT-TNT composite.

several tens to several hundreds. Their outer diameter was approximately 10 nm and length was below 1 μm as is well-known. Contrastively, nanotubes of CNT-TNT composite were well-separated each other as presented in Fig. 1(b). They had outer diameter of 20~40 nm and maximum length of several micrometers. In case of the adding CNTs, the specific surface area was presumed to be slightly decreased to about quarter because the diame- ter of nanotubes was increased from 10 nm to more than 20 nm. It could be inferred that CNTs affected to the morphology of TNTs during the alkaline hydrothermal synthesis. However, CNT could not be detected easily through FESEM observation.

Fig. 2 shows the XRD patterns of the TiO

powder as raw material and the TNTs synthesized with and without CNTs. Whereas the raw material TiO

powder was shown as an anatase phase (JCPDS 21-1272), the as-syn- thesized TNT and CNT-TNT composite did not exhib- ited clear and sharp crystallite peaks. In fact, it was known that pure TNT synthesized by an alkaline hydro- thermal route was formed to H

Ti

O

or Na

H

Ti-

n

O

(n=3, 4) [11]. In this study, observed diffraction peaks of the pure TNT at around 2 θ of 10

, 24.5

and 48.5

corresponding to the (200), (110), and (020) planes were in good agreement with the monoclinic H

Ti

O

·H

O (JCPDS 36-655) having four edge-sharing TiO

octahe- dra in the unit cell. On the other hand, the XRD pattern of CNT-TNT sample (2 θ ~ 8.4

, 10.6

, 12.4

, 25

and 48.5

corresponding to (001), (200), (20 ), (110), and (020) planes, respectively) seemed to be monoclinic

H

Ti

O

·nH

O because two peaks of (001) and (20 ) planes were more similar to pattern of the H

Ti

O

(JCPDS 47-561) having three edge-sharing TiO

octahe- dra. The typical CNT peak that should exist around 25

could not be confirmed due to its small amount and peak overlap with TNT peak of (110) plane, and some peaks which were indexed to (001), (200), and (20 ) planes, were shifted to lower angles as compared with an anhy- drous H

Ti

O

. It is well-known that the interlayer spac- ing of TNT is expanded with increasing the amount of adsorbed water because this adsorbed H

O exists in the one-dimensional tunnel and skeletal crystal structure of nanotubes [21]. Thus, it was speculated that the peaks of (001), (200), and (20 ) planes were shifted due to adsorbed H

O of sample.

To analyze more detail, TG analysis was conducted Fig. 3 shows the TG curves of TNT and CNT-TNT sam- ples. Some steps were observed at 30-150, 150-250, 250- 400

C for TNT and CNT-TNT, and at 550-700

C only for CNT-TNT. The first step up to 150

C was desorption of H

O, which was existed in interlayer space of nano- tube wall. The weight loss of CNT-TNT composite in this step was approximately 5.1% corresponding to 0.78H

O in H

Ti

O

·nH

O. Pure TNT sample had the weight loss of 5.3% that was equivalent to one mole of H

O in H

Ti

O

·nH

O. The weight losses of second and third steps from 150 to 450

C meant that titanate (H

Ti

n

O

) was changed to TiO

through a dehydration. In these steps, the weight losses were approximately 5.4 and 1

1

1

1

Fig. 2. XRD patterns of raw TiO

, as-synthesized TNT and CNT-TNT composite.

Fig. 3. Thermogravimetric (TG) curves of TNT and CNT-

TNT composite.

6.6% for pure TNT and CNT-TNT samples, respectively.

Also, the calculated dehydration amounts of H

Ti

O

and H

Ti

O

are 5.3 and 6.9%, respectively. From the results of XRD and TGA, it was considered that TNT and CNT- TNT were formed as H

Ti

O

·H

O and H

Ti

O

·0.78H

O each. Moreover, the weight loss at 550-700

C for CNT- TNTs was confirmed to be occurred by burning the MWCNTs corresponding to 5mol.%.

Fig. 4 shows the RAMAN spectra of TNT and CNT-TNT samples. The RAMAN band at 190 cm

was attributed to the anatase TiO

mode [11] and bands at 275 cm

, 448 cm

, 670 cm

, 840 cm

were generally assigned to the TNTs [2, 22, 23]. It was reported that the features at 275 cm

, 448 cm

, 670 cm

were originated from Ti-O-Ti vibra- tion and the band around 840 cm

with a broad and weak intensity was related to Ti-O-H vibration [23, 24]. How- ever, the origin of TNTs bands is still not revealed clearly.

The inset in Fig. 4 shows the D-band at 1350 cm

and G- band at 1580 cm

of CNT for the CNT-TNT composite, showing CNT could remain without any serious damage during the high concentration alkali treatment.

To reveal the formation mechanism of CNT-TNT com- posite, FESEM and TEM observations were conducted.

Although the formation mechanism of pure TNT in NaOH aqueous solution has been argued between some researchers till now, many researchers agree that the tita- nate nanosheets are formed and then are rolled to nano- tubes [25-28]. FESEM image of the CNT-TNT sample which was taken during an alkaline hydrothermal synthe-

sis was shown in Fig. 5(a). It can be confirmed that the titanate sheet-like products wrapped around the CNTs before rolling to titanate nanotubes. Fig. 5(b) shows TEM image of the as-synthesized CNT-TNT sample. The result of TEM-EDS line-scanning revealed that the CNT and TNT were consisted by the core-shell nanotubular struc- ture, where the TNT shell surrounded the CNT core. It could be confirmed that the inner and outer diameters of TNT which had the tubular structure were ~20 nm and

~25 nm, respectively. The diameter of TNT on CNT-TNT composite was increased compared with that of the pure TNT sample which had the outer diameter of ~10 nm.

According to the formation mechanism of TNT, it was consequently speculated that the increment of diameter Fig. 4. Raman spectra of TNT and CNT-TNT composite.

(Inset) D and G bands of CNT for CNT-TNT composite.

Fig. 5. FESEM and TEM images of CNT-TNT composite; (a)

during an alkaline hydrothermal synthesis and (b) as-

synthesized. (Inset) Line profile of the TEM-EDS corresponding

to yellow line in (b).

was because while titanate nanosheet was formed to nanotube, this nanosheet wrapped around the CNT tem- plate having a diameter of ~10 nm, resulting in forming the core-shell structure.

To evaluate the photocatalytic activity of synthesized CNT-TNT composite, the MB removal test was per- formed under the dark and UV light irradiation condi- tions. Fig. 6 depicts the adsorption and degradation properties of MB by TNT, and CNT-TNT samples. The amount of adsorbed MB by CNT-TNT was slightly lower than that by TNT. The lower amount of adsorbed MB on CNT-TNT sample could be ascribed to the decrease to about quarter of the specific surface area of TNT due to increasing the diameter and wall thickness of synthe- sized nanotubes as mentioned before. However, the deg- radation rate of MB by CNT-TNT sample under UV light irradiation after 4 h was dramatically higher than that by TNT. This superiority of CNT-TNT was considered that CNT acted as a reservoir to trap electrons emitted from TNT during the photocatalysis process, and thereby the electron-hole pair recombination could efficiently be sup- pressed, resulted in improvement of the photocatalytic activity [12, 19].

To enhance photocatalytic properties of TiO

, many researches have been performed to load noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) such as Pt on TiO

surface to facili- tate the co-catalytic effect of the metal NPs [29, 30].

Recently, Pt NPs loaded TNT has also attracted much attention due to their potential as high-performance cata-

lyst [31-35]. In the case of metal (Pt) NPs loaded TiO

, it is argued that photocatalytic degradation of organic mole- cules in TiO

surface is promoted by the reduction and oxidation reaction by various radicals such as O

•

, OH•

and so on which are generated by the photogenerated electrons and holes [35, 36]. The Pt NPs plays a major role in realizing charge separation to hold electrons while the TiO

acts individual molecular adsorption as well as reaction site by providing photogenerated holes for radi- cal formation as h

+ OH

→ OH• [36]. In the present CNT-TNT composite, CNT core might accumulate elec- trons and TNT shell sufficiently acts as reaction site of MB degradation. In this regard, TNT surface can fully utilized for this sequence due to the core-shell structure.

This seems to be the similar effect that was pointed out for the site-selective loading of Pt into inside of TNTs, which exhibited better photocatalytic activity for oxida- tion of acetaldehyde gas than those of Pt NPs loaded on the outer surface of TNTs [31]. However, it is considered that CNT might be more desirable as electron accumulation agent because of higher electronegativity of carbon than platinum. These facts hence imply us that the core-shell CNT-TNT has suitable nanostructure with the enhanced photocatalytic activity.

4. Conclusions

One dimensional CNT-TNT composite was success- fully synthesized via the solution chemical route. FESEM and HRTEM results showed that CNT-TNT composite was formed by the core-shell nanotubular structure with outer diameter of 20~40 nm and maximum length of sev- eral micrometers, where the TNT surrounded the CNT core. It was speculated that the titanate nanosheet, com- posed by H

Ti

O

·0.78H

O, might roll-up to the CNT template.

In the photocatalytic activity of samples, although the MB adsorption property of CNT-TNT was slightly decreased, as compared with that of pure TNT, the MB degradation under UV light irradiation was significantly increased due to the appropriate nanoarchitecture and resultant function sharing of CNT core and TNT shell. It was thus considered that such a low-dimensional core- shell nanotube consisting of semiconductor oxide (TNT) and conductive carbon (CNT) may exhibit better photo- Fig. 6. Adsorption and degradation of MB for TNT and

CNT-TNT under dark and UV light irradiation.

catalytic activity as CNT played a role in suppressing the electron-hole pair recombination of photocatalysts.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by the JSPS under the Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows (No.23-01332) and under the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) (No.

22241017). This research was also supported in Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2016R1A6A1A03013422).

References

[1] A. Fujishima and K. Honda: Nature, 238 (1972) 37.

[2] D. V. Bavykin, J. M. Friedrich and F. C. Walsh: Adv.

Mater., 18 (2006) 2807.

[3] P. Hoyer: Langmuir 12 (1996) 1411.

[4] T. Kasuga, M. Hiramatsu, A. Hoson, T. Sekino and K.

Niihara: Langmuir, 14 (1998) 3160.

[5] H. Imai, Y. Takei, K. Shimizu, M. Matsuda and H.

Hirashima: J. Mater. Chem., 9 (1999) 2971.

[6] T. Sekino, T. Okamoto, T. Kasuga, T. Kusunose, T.

Nakayama and K. Niihara: Key Eng. Mat., 317-318 (2006) 251.

[7] A. Michailowski, D. AlMawlawi, G. S. Cheng and M.

Moskovits: Chem. Phys. Lett., 349 (2001) 1.

[8] S. M. Liu, L. M. Gan, L. H. Liu, W. D. Zhang and H. C.

Zeng: Chem. Mater., 14 (2002) 1391.

[9] D. Eder and A. H. Windle: Adv. Mater., 20 (2008) 1787.

[10] T. Kasuga, M. Hiramatsu, A. Hoson, T. Sekino and K.

Niihara: Adv. Mater., 11 (1999) 1307.

[11] I. Tacchini, A. Anson-Casaos, Y. Yu, M. T. Martinez and M. Lira-Cantu: Mater. Sci. Eng. B, 177 (2012) 19.

[12] W. Wang, C. Lu, Y. Ni, M. Su and Z. Xu: Mater. Lett., 79 (2012) 11.

[13] T. T. Duong, Q. D. Nguyen, S. K. Hong, D. Kim, S. G.

Yoon and T. H. Pham: Adv. Mater., 23 (2011) 5557.

[14] R. P. Antony, T. Mathews, A. Dasgupta, S. Dash, A. K.

Tyagi and B. Raj: J. Solid State Chem., 184 (2011) 624.

[15] L. Wang, X. Wu and S. Zhang: Appl. Mech. Mater., 130- 134 (2012) 1281.

[16] D. Gong, C. A. Grimes, O. K. Varghese, W. Hu, R. S.

Singh, Z. Chen and E. C. Dickey: J. Mater. Res., 16 (2001) 3331.

[17] S. Iijima: Nature, 354 (1991) 56.

[18] V. Pifferi, G. Facchinetti, A. Villa, L. Prati and L. Falci- ola: Catal. Today, 249 (2015) 265.

[19] Y. Zhang, Z. R. Tang, X. Fu and Y. J. Xu: ACS Nano, 4 (2010) 7303.

[20] H. Yu, X. Quan, S. Chen and H. Zhao: J. Phys. Chem. C, 111 (2007) 12987.

[21] S. Suzuki and M. Miyayama: J. Ceram. Soc. Japan, 118 (2010) 1154.

[22] M. Hodos, E. Horvath, H. Haspel, A. Kukovecz, Z.

Konya and I. Kiricsi: Chem. Phys. Lett., 399 (2004) 512.

[23] L. Qian, Z. L. Du, S. Y. Yang and Z. S. Jin: J. Mol.

Struct., 749 (2005) 103.

[24] S. H. Byeon, S. O. Lee and H. Kim: J. Solid State Chem., 130 (1997) 110.

[25] G. H. Du, Q. Chen, R. C. Che, Z. Y. Yuan and L. M.

Peng: Appl. Phys. Lett., 79 (2001) 3702.

[26] D. V. Bavykin, V. N. Parmon, A. A. Lapkin and F. C.

Walsh: J. Mater. Chem., 14 (2004) 3370.

[27] A. Kukovecz, M. Hodos, E. Horvath, G. Radnoczi, Z.

Konya and I. Kiricsi: J. Phys. Chem. B, 109 (2005) 17781.

[28] Y. Q. Wang, G. Q. Hu, X. F. Duan, H. L. Sun and Q. K.

Xue: Chem. Phys. Lett., 365 (2002) 427.

[29] E. Borgarello, J. Kiwi, M. Grätzel, E. Peliuetti and M.

Visca: J. Am. Chem. Soc., 104 (1982) 2996.

[30] K. E. Karakitsou and X. E. Verykios: J. Phys. Chem., 97 (1993) 1184.

[31] K. Nishijima, T. Fukahori, N. Murakami, T. Kamai, T.

Tsubota and T. Ohno: Appl. Catal. A, 337 (2008) 105.

[32] K. P. Yu, W. Y. Yu, M. C. Kuo, Y. C. Liou and S. H.

Chien: Appl. Catal. B, 84 (2008) 112.

[33] A. V. Grigorieva, E. A. Goodilin, L. E. Derlyukova, T. A.

Anufrieva, A. B. Tarasov, Y. A. Dobrovolskii and Y. D.

Tretyakov: Appl. Catal. A, 362 (2009) 20.

[34] Q. Zhao, M. Li, J. Chu, T. Jiang and H. Yin: Appl. Surf.

Sci., 255 (2009) 3773.

[35] D. J. Park, T. Sekino, S. Tsukuda and S. I. Tanaka: J.

Ceram. Soc. Japan, 120 (2012) 307.

[36] A. Houas, H. Lachheb, M. Ksibi, E. Elaloui, C. Guillard

and J. M. Herrmann: Appl. Cat. B: Environ., 31 (2001)

145.