Figure 3.

TiO₂ NPs/TiO₂ nanocomposites for enhanced photocatalytic performance: (a) SEM top view micrographs of the composite layers (i: bottom layer; ii: top layer) and schematic cross section of the thin film composite (iii); (b) photocatalytic performance of the nanocomposite (green line) as well as its constituent layers (blue line: NPs top layer; black line: dense bottom layer). Compared to the calculated degradation of the nanocomposite (magenta line, the addition of degradation of the individual components), the manufactured nanocomposite exhibits an increased photocatalytic performance, which implies a synergistic effect of surface decoration of dense TiO₂ thin films by TiO₂ NPs. (details are given in Supplementary Materials).