A general strategy towards controllable replication of butterfly wings for robust light photocatalysis

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2021.07.035

Abstract

Abstract:

Large-scale replication of the hierarchical microstructure of bio-template is a long-standing challenge due to the large shrinkage when the bio-templates are burned off. In this work, TiO₂ based biomimetic metamaterials have been successfully synthesized by sputtering technique, followed by tape assisted transferring and thermal oxidation process. Tile-like arrays of the scale replicas with ridge-lamellae hierarchical microstructures have been obtained and exhibit bright blue-purple structure color. More interestingly, they exhibit significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity to decompose methylene blue under solar light illumination, with the degradation rate of methylene blue almost five times that of TiO₂ thin films with the same sample area. The enhancement on the visible light photocatalytic activity in TiO₂ replicas can be attributed to a synergy effect of the presence of Ti³⁺ doping, the air-TO₂ interaction, and hierarchical microstructure. The controlling factors that affect the microstructure, structural color and photocatalytic activity of the TiO₂ replicas have been discussed in detail. This work offers a scalable and precise approach to replicate various bio-templates based on transition metal oxides, such as ZnO, Fe₃O₄, CoO, and VO₂, thereby providing the new opportunity for infrared sensing, photocatalytic and photonic applications.

Key words: Photocatalysis, Biomimetic metamaterial, TiO₂, Structural color, Sputtering

Minmin Zhu, Haizhong Zhang, Shoo Wen Long Favier, Yida Zhao, Huilu Guo, Zehui Du. A general strategy towards controllable replication of butterfly wings for robust light photocatalysis[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2022, 105: 286-292.

Figures/Tables 6

Fig. 1. Structural characterizations of the morpho butterfly. (a) Original and (b) amplified photo images of the morpho butterfly. (c) Photograph of cover scale and ground scale in wing. SEM images of butterfly wing (d), cover-ground scale interfaces (e), and zoomed-in SEM image of (f) the ground scales and (g) the cover scales.

Fig. 2. Controlled replication of morpho butterfly by a sputtering technique. (a) Schematic illustration of the replication process by the sputtering, tape-assisted transferring, and annealing processes. (b-d) Photographs of TiO2 replica without tape assisted transfer process. (e-g) Photographs of TiO2 replica with tape assisted transfer process. FESEM images of (h) the ground scale replica and (i) the cover scale replicas made of TiO2 and obtained from the transferring and annealing process.

Fig. 3. SEM characterizations of TiO2 replicas. SEM images of (a) the cover scales and (b) the ground scales of TiO2 replicas with 5, 10, 20, and 60 min deposition time. The scale bar is 1 μm.

Fig. 4. Microstructure characterization and phase identifications of TiO2. (a) Schematic illustration of anatase and rutile TiO2. (b) XRD patterns of the TiO2 replica sputtered for 20 min and annealed at different temperatures. (c-e) TEM images of TiO2 replica annealed at 450, 550, and 650°C. The corresponding SAED patterns are shown in the insets. (f-h) HRTEM images of the replicas annealed at 450, 550, and 650°C.

Fig. 5. Photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 replicas. (a) Photo images of MB (i) before solar illumination, (ii) after 3 h of solar illumination. (b) Degradation ratio of MB of all samples as a function of the time. (c) Comparison of the degradation rate of MB in the TiO2 replicas with TiO2 thin films with the same area. (d) Schematic illustration of the photocatalytic decomposition process. High resolution (e) Ti 2p and (f) O 1s XPS spectra of the sample with 20-min sputtering time.

Fig. 6. Enhancement mechanism of visible light photocatalytic activity in the devices. (a) Hierarchical metamaterial structure of TiO2. (b) Absorbance spectra of TiO2 replicas in UV-visible range with increasing growth time.

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