Facile synthesis of TiO2 hierarchical tubes with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Hierarchical micro/nanostructured tubular TiO2 were prepared by impregnation-calcination method with FCT (the fluff of the chinar tree) as biological template and titanium tetrachloride as precursor. The resultant TiO2 samples possess curly tubular structure and the exterior outline of the samples look like fried dough twist. Moreover, the wall of the tube is assembled with spherical-likely nanoparticles. During the bio-inspired synthetic process, the FCT plays important roles as template and inducer for assembling the tubular micro/nanostructure. Furthermore, the resultant TiO2 exhibits favorable photocatalytic activity and good stability for degrading methyl orange under UV light irradiation.