Fluorination of Defective Titanium Dioxide with an Efficient Photocatalytic Activity

Fluorinated-defective titanium dioxide (F-TiO2−x) was successfully synthesized by fluorination of TiO2 through the hydrothermal method. The microstructure and physicochemical properties of the catalyst were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–vis DRS). As expected, F-TiO2−x demonstrates high photocatalytic activity and stability on dye degradation. Results indicated that fluorine element can effective for stabilizing Ti3+ and oxygen vacancies on the surface of F-TiO2−x. With the increase in the amount of hydrofluoric acid (HF) added, the photocatalytic performance of the prepared material is first increased and then decreased, and the catalyst shows the best performance when the amount of HF added is 0.3 mL. For three different dyes, the catalysts all showed a certain photocatalytic degradation performance, and the degradation effect of rhodamine B was the best.