Hydrothermally Grown Globosa-like TiO2 Nanostructures for Effective Photocatalytic Dye Degradation and LPG Sensing

Abstract

The rapid expansion of industrial activities has resulted in severe environmental pollution manifested by organic dyes discharged from the food, textile, and leather industries, as well as hazardous gas emissions from various industrial processes. Titanium dioxide (TiO2)-nanostructured materials have emerged as promising candidates for effective photocatalytic dye degradation and gas sensing applications owing to their unique physicochemical properties. This study investigates the development of a photocatalyst and a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sensor using hydrothermally synthesized globosa-like TiO2 nanostructures (GTNs). The synthesized GTNs are then evaluated to photocatalytically degrade methylene blue dye, resulting in an outstanding photocatalytic activity of 91% degradation within 160 min under UV light irradiation. Furthermore, these nanostructures are utilized to sense liquefied petroleum gas, which attains a superior sensitivity of 7.3% with high response and recovery times and good reproducibility. This facile and cost-effective hydrothermal method of fabricating TiO2 nanostructures opens a new avenue in photocatalytic dye degradation and gas sensing applications.