Hierarchical TiO2@carbon nanofiber aerogels with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic performance for environmental remediation

Developing efficient visible-light-driven photocatalysts for environmental remediation remains challenging due to the limited light utilization and rapid charge recombination in traditional TiO2-based materials. Herein, we report a facile approach to fabricate hierarchical TiO2@carbon nanofiber aerogels (TiO2@CNFAs) with uniformly distributed TiO2 nanoparticles on a carbon nanofiber skeleton. The unique hierarchical structure provides extensive surface area (up to 153.7 m2/g) and intimate TiO2/carbon interfacial contact, while the rational band structure design effectively narrows the bandgap to 2.33 eV for enhanced visible light absorption. The optimized interface engineering leads to remarkably improved charge separation efficiency, evidenced by a 16-fold increase in photocurrent density (3.63 mu A/cm2) and extended carrier lifetime (4.22 ns). These advantages enable superior photocatalytic performance with over 90 % removal efficiency for three dyes (Methylene Blue, Congo Red, and Rhodamine B) and one antibiotic (Tetracycline) under xenon lamp irradiation, and achieving 93.69 % degradation of Rhodamine B under natural sunlight within 240 min. This work provides a promising strategy for designing efficient visible-light-driven photocatalysts for environmental applications.