Nickel Oxide Clusters on TiO2@Carbon Cloth Nanowires for Efficient Photocatalytic Oxidation of Formaldehyde under 420 nm LED Irradiation

Abstract It is a great challenge to fabricate effective visible‐light‐driven photocatalysts to decompose indoor volatile organic pollutants in the air. Herein, rutile TiO 2 nanorods were prepared on carbon cloth by means of a seed assisted hydrothermal method, and NiO clusters were loaded subsequently onto the TiO 2 nanorods. Loading of NiO clusters enhances the absorption of visible light due to the surface plasma resonance (SPR) effect at the interface of NiO/TiO 2 . The degradation efficiency of the optimized sample reaches 94 % for formaldehyde under 420 nm LED irradiation, higher than value of 34 % obtained for TiO 2 . While under 365 nm LED light, the degradation rate obtained with the same sample compared with TiO 2 decreases dramatically since 365 nm light cannot activate the NiO/TiO 2 junction and NiO coverage blocks partly light absorption. The SPR effect for NiO/TiO 2 facilitates the generation and transfer of photoinduced electron/hole pairs, thus enhancing the photocatalytic oxidation of gaseous formaldehyde under visible‐light irradiation.