Fast and mild alkaline solvothermal synthesis of nanostructured flower-like Na₂Ti₃O₇ and its methylene blue adsorption capacity

This work reports a facile solvothermal synthesis of hierarchical flower-like Na₂Ti₃O₇ structures with fast and high methylene blue adsorption capacity. A mesoporous architecture of Na₂Ti₃O₇ with a surface area of 159.63 m²-g-1 was produced under mild alkaline conditions (2 M NaOH) and a short reaction time (8 h). Interestingly, methylene blue adsorption equilibrium on the Na₂Ti₃O₇ powders was achieved in a short time of 10 min. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm model described the adsorption mechanism. The synthesized Na₂Ti₃O₇ powders have interesting features that highlight their suitability for environmental applications.