The many faces of rutile titania

Surface modification of mesoporous nanocrystalline TiO2 films with carboxymethyl-β-cyclodextrin (CMBCD) improves the adsorption of typically non anchoring species, such as bis(4-bromophenylterpyridine)iron(II), by means of host–guest interactions. Such host–guest strategy allows the exploitation of the photochemical properties of the TiO2 surfaces for the selective photodegradation of guest organic species.