Sarifuddin Gazi

PET plastic is widely used in textiles, packaging, disposable beverage bottles and other products, with nearly 70 million tons produced annually worldwide [1]. Nevertheless, PET waste plastic usually cannot be degraded under natural conditions, which will seriously threaten the ecological environment and human health [2], [3]. Moreover, as a kind of petroleum-based plastic, PET contains rich resources of carbon and hydrogen [2].

In this report, three-dimensional (3-D) network of core-shell TiO2 (P25) - mesoporous SiO2 (P25@mSiO2) nanocomposites were prepared via a controllable surfactant-assisted sol-gel method. The nanocomposites were investigated for photocatalytic reactions of organic dye degradation, water splitting, and CO2 reduction to understand the roles of the mSiO2 shell in these photocatalytic reactions.