Monolithic 3D titania with ultrathin nanoshell structures for enhanced photocatalytic activity and recyclability

Titania has attracted considerable interest for use in water purification applications due to its excellent photocatalytic activity. To further improve the efficiency of photocatalysis, numerous nanostructures (i.e. nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanowires) have been proposed to increase the surface area of titania. Despite the high photocatalytic performance of the nanostructured titania, subsequent difficulties encountered in recollection and reuse of titania inhibit the practical application for water purification systems. Here we successfully fabricate monolithic, three dimensional (3D) nanoshell titania with high uniformity over large areas (∼1 × 1 inch²) through proximity field nanopatterning (PnP) and low-temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD) techniques. The higher surface area of 3D nanoshell titania increases the photocatalytic performance more than three-fold relative to that of a thin film of equivalent sample size. Also, the monolithic form of titania enables it to be reused without any degradation of photocatalytic activity. The newly developed nanomaterials in this study can serve as an efficient and reusable photocatalyst for water purification systems.