%0 Journal Article %J Chinese Chemical Letters %D 2019 %T Fabrication of niobium doped titanate nanoflakes with enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity for efficient ibuprofen degradation %A Liu, Wen %A Wei Zhang %A Mushi Liu %A Du, Penghui %A Dang, Chenyuan %A Jialiang Liang %A Yunyi Li %K Element doping %K Ibuprofen %K Niobium %K Photocatalysis %K Titanate %X In this study, a novel class of niobium (Nb) doped titanate nanoflakes (TNFs) are fabricated through a one-step hydrothermal method. Nb doping affects the curving of titanate nanosheet, leading to the formation of nanoflake structure. In addition, Nb5+ filled in the interlayers of [TiO6] alters the light adsorption property of pristine titanate. The band gap of Nb-TNFs is narrowed to 2.85 eV, while neat titanate nanotubes (TNTs) is 3.4 eV. The enhanced visible light adsorption significantly enhances the visible-light-driven activity of Nb-TNFs for ibuprofen (IBP) degradation. The pseudo-first order kinetics constant for Nb-TNFs is calculated to be 1.04 h−1, while no obvious removal is observed for TNTs. Photo-generated holes (h+) and hydroxyl radicals (OH) are responsible for IBP degradation. The photocatalytic activity of Nb-TNFs depends on pH condition, and the optimal pH value is found to be 5. In addition, Nb-TNFs exhibited superior photo-stability during the reuse cycles. The results demonstrated Nb-TNFs are very promising in photocatalytic water purification. %B Chinese Chemical Letters %V 30 %P 2177 - 2180 %G eng %U http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1001841719304541 %R http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cclet.2019.07.050