Hydrothermal-assisted liquid phase deposition synthesis and photocatalytic activities of titania nanocrystals

Herein, we firstly used hydrothermal-assisted liquid phase deposition (HT-LPD) approach to prepare anatase titania nanocrystals, with γ-Al2O3 as the fluorion scavenger. The as-prepared products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectrometer, and transmission electron microscope. Compared with titania nanocrystal prepared by LPD method, titania nanocrystals prepared by HT-LPD method exhibited better photocatalytic activity, especially the nanocrystal prepared by HT-LPD method at 200 °C for 3 h. The possible reason for the enhanced photocatalytic activity was investigated.