Surface Defect Engineering in Colored TiO2 Hollow Spheres Toward Efficient Photocatalysis (Adv. Funct. Mater. 22/2023)

Hierarchical Nanostructures In article number 2212486, Elisa Moretti, Alberto Vomiero, and co-workers, applied TiO2 hollow spheres with defect-engineered surface as highly efficient photocatalysts. The hollow structure results in strongly confined solar light, and surface defects boost the photogeneration of active charges for photocatalytic processes. Advanced spectroscopies revealed the presence of oxygen vacancies and bulk Ti3+ centers, which enabled strong photodegradation of a target drug (Ciprofloxacin) under simulated sunlight.