Synthesis of Br-doped TiO2 hollow spheres with enhanced photocatalytic activity

The Br-doped hollow TiO2 photocatalysts were prepared by a simple hydrothermal process on the carbon sphere template following with calcination at 400 °C. The structure and properties of photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectrum, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscopy, N2 desorption–adsorption, UV–Vis spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The TiO2 hollow spheres are in diameter of 500 nm with shell thickness of 50 nm. The shell is composed of small anatase nanoparticles with size of about 10 nm. The TiO2 hollow spheres exhibit high crystalline and high surface area of 89.208 m2/g. With increasing content of Br doping, the band gap of TiO2 hollow spheres decreased from 2.85 to 1.75 eV. The formation of impurity band in the band gap would narrow the band gap and result in the red shift of absorption edge from 395 to 517 nm, which further enhances the photocatalytic activity. The appropriate Br doping improves the photocatlytic activity significantly. The TiO2 hollow spheres with 1.55% Br doping (0.5Br-TiO2) exhibit the highest photocatalytic activity under full light. More than 98% of RhB, MO, and MB can be photodegraded using 0.5Br-TiO2 with concentration of 10 mg/L in 40, 30, and 30 min, respectively. The degradation rate of Br-doped photocatalysts was 40% faster than undoped ones.