A low-cost sensitizer based on a phenolic resin for charge-transfer type photocatalysts working under visible light.

Phenolic resin (denoted as PR) was used as an economical sensitizer of titania to achieve efficient visible light photocatalytic activity. Through the surface complexation of PR with TiO(2), we demonstrate that the complexed PR layer sensitizes TiO(2) under visible light through the ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) mechanism.