Titanium dioxide nanomaterials for photocatalysis

Abstract

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been long regarded as one of the more promising photocatalysts to remove environmental pollution and to generate hydrogen from water under sunlight irradiation via photocatalysis. TiO2 is environmentally benign and thus is considered a 'green' catalyst. In this review we present a short introduction to the physical and electronic properties of TiO2, its photocatalytic mechanisms, and some recent examples of various TiO2 materials used for photocatalysis; these examples include 0, 1, 2, 3D, faceted, defected, composited, and hydrogenated TiO2 materials.