Synthesis of High-Activity TiO₂-Based Photocatalysts by Compounding a Small Amount of Porous Nanosized LaFeO₃ and the Activity-Enhanced Mechanisms

In this work, a feasible strategy has been developed to fabricate highly active TiO 2 -based photocatalysts for degrading rhodamine B solution under ultraviolet or visible irradiation. The key of this strategy is to compound a small amount of porous LaFeO 3 to nanocrystalline TiO 2, leading to the delay of anatase-rutile phase tansformation and then to the formation of the anatase TiO 2 /rutile TiO 2 /LaFeO 3 three-phase nanostructured heterojunctions after thermal treatment at a high temperature of 800 °C. The resulting three-phase heterojunctions greatly favor the photoinduced charge separation, especially promoting the visible induced electrons of LaFeO 3 captured by the adsorbed O 2, based on their surface photovoltage responses, which is well responsible for the ultraviolet or visible activity enhancement. This work would provide a feasible route to fabricate high-performance TiO 2 -based nanomaterials.