Abstract
Although TiO(2) was formerly a common material for photocatalysis reactions, its wide band gap (3.2 eV) results in absorbing only ultraviolet light, which accounts for merely 4% of total sunlight. Modifying TiO(2) has become a focus of photocatalysis reaction research, and combining two metal oxide semiconductors is the most common method in the photocatalytic enhancement process. When MoO(3) and TiO(2) come into contact to form a heterogeneous interface, the photogenerated holes excited from the valence band of MoO(3) should be transferred to the valence band of TiO(2) to effectively reduce the charge recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. This can efficiently separate the pairs and promote photocatalysis efficiency. In addition, photocurrent enhancement is attributed to the strong near-field and light-scattering effects from plasmonic Ag nanoparticles. In this work, we fabricated MoO(3)-coated TiO(2) nanotube heterostructures with a 3D hierarchical configuration through two-step anodic oxidation and a facile hydrothermal method. This 3D hierarchical structure consists of a TiO(2) nanotube core and a MoO(3) shell (referred to as TNTs@MoO(3)), as characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.