Synthesis and high photocatalytic performance of a novel hollow meso-TiO2/ZnO composite microsphere

A novel hollow meso-TiO2/ZnO composite microsphere is fabricated by simple sol-gel and hydrothermal method, and could be a binary photocatalytic material. The carbon sphere is used as the hollow template for the composite material, then the meso-TiO2 used as the inner shell and the nanometer ZnO as the outer shell. The results of photocatalytic degradation for methyl orange show that the photocatalytic performance of the composite is better than that of a single photocatalyst, degradation rate is up to 96.9% after 2.5 h under UV light. Compared with meso-TiO2, the excitation wavelength of composite microspheres has moved 12 nm in the direction of visible light. The meso-TiO2/ZnO composite microsphere has higher photocatalytic performance, which is attributed to the hollow structure and the synergy of meso-TiO2 and ZnO. The hollow structure and mesoporous channel are used as the storage warehouse and transport channel of methyl orange molecule respectively. Graphical Abstract The hollow structure and mesoporous channel are used as the storage warehouse and reaction channel of methyl orange molecule, respectively. The higher photocatalytic performance of meso-TiO2/ZnO composite microsphere is also attributed to the synergy of meso-TiO2 and ZnO. [GRAPHICS] .