Preparation, electronic structure and photocatalytic activity of the In2TiO5 photocatalyst

Indium titanate In2TiO5 powder was prepared by a low-temperature combustion synthesis method and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectrum and field-emission scanning electron microscope. The only ternary In/Ti/O compound In2TiO5, composed of the octahedral [TiO6] and [InO6] motifs, was selected to be a photocatalyst containing both early-transition metal (d0) and p-block metal (d10). The absorption spectrum indicates that In2TiO5 has an optical gap of 3.02 eV. The photocatalytic property of the sample was evaluated by using the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO). The photocatalytic activity of In2TiO5 for the complete degradation of MO was higher than that of TiO2 (P25). Band calculations reveal that the high photocatalytic activity is tightly related to the electronic structure and the open crystal structure of In2TiO5.