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In Situ Fabrication of Hierarchically Branched TiO 2 Nanostructures: Enhanced Performance in Photocatalytic H 2 Evolution and Li–Ion Batteries
Author(s) -
Yang Guorui,
Wang Ling,
Peng Shengjie,
Wang Jianan,
Ji Dongxiao,
Yan Wei,
Ramakrishna Seeram
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201702357
Subject(s) - materials science , photocatalysis , fabrication , in situ , nanostructure , ion , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , characterization (materials science) , catalysis , chemistry , organic chemistry , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , engineering
1D branched TiO 2 nanomaterials play a significant role in efficient photocatalysis and high‐performance lithium ion batteries. In contrast to the typical methods which generally have to employ epitaxial growth, the direct in situ growth of hierarchically branched TiO 2 nanofibers by a combination of the electrospinning technique and the alkali‐hydrothermal process is presented in this work. Such the branched nanofibers exhibit improvement in terms of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (0.41 mmol g −1 h −1 ), in comparison to the conventional TiO 2 nanofibers (0.11 mmol g −1 h −1 ) and P25 (0.082 mmol g −1 h −1 ). Furthermore, these nanofibers also deliver higher lithium specific capacity at different current densities, and the specific capacity at the rate of 2 C is as high as 201. 0 mAh g −1 , roughly two times higher than that of the pristine TiO 2 nanofibers.