Synthesis of V₂O₅@TiO₂ core-shell hybrid composites for sunlight degradation of methylene blue

This study has demonstrated a facile but efficient synthesis method to prepare vanadium oxide@titanium oxide (V₂O₅@TiO₂) core-shell nanostructures using a water bath at mild temperatures (≤100 °C). This method shows a few unique features, including a short reaction time for fabricating core-shell nanostructures, no requirement of high temperature calcination (>500 °C) for TiO₂ crystallization, easily tunable TiO₂ shell thickness, high yield, and good reproducibility. With characterization using several advanced techniques (TEM, BET, XRD, XPS and UV-vis spectroscopy), the as-prepared V₂O₅@TiO₂ nanocomposites were found to exhibit a large surface area, and a good stability. The experimental results show that the V₂O₅@TiO₂ core-shell composites show a superior sunlight photocatalytic activity compared to the pure TiO₂ nanoparticles for the degradation of organic dyes (e.g., methylene blue), probably because of the matched energy bands between V₂O₅ and TiO₂. These findings may bring new insights into the designing of TiO₂-based core-shell and other nanocomposites with enhanced photocatalytic efficiencies for environmental remediation.