Interfacial assembly and hydrolysis for synthesizing a TiO<sub>2</sub>/metal-organic framework composite.

Liu, Lifei; Zhang, Fanyu; Zhang, Jianling; Tan, Xiuniang; Zhang, Bingxing; Shi, Jinbiao; Shao, Dan; Tan, Dongxing et al. · Soft Matter · 2017

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Herein we propose an interfacial assembly and hydrolysis route for fabricating TiO<sub>2</sub>/UiO-67 composites. The UiO-67 assembles at the water-oil interface serving as a stabilizer of the emulsion. TiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles are loaded on UiO-67 by hydrolysis of the precursor TBT (tetra-n-butyl titanate) at the water-oil interface. By such a strategy, hollow capsules structured by UiO-67 and decorated by ultra-small TiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles were produced. The newly-constructed composite combines the CO<sub>2</sub> adsorption properties of UiO-67 and the photocatalytic activity of TiO<sub>2</sub>, showing high activity for the photocatalytic reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to formic acid. Such a composite with a novel structure provides a promising route for the preparation of new compound materials.