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<p>Light
harvesting capability and charge carriers lifetime play critical roles in
determining the photoefficency of photocatalyst. Herein, a one-pot method is
proposed to design mesostructured TiO<sub>2</sub> materials by taking advantage
of the ability of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) to self-assemble into chiral
nematic structures during solvent evaporation. After the xerogel formation, the
as-obtained CNC/TiO<sub>2</sub> hybrid films exhibit a chiral nematic structure
and tunable Bragg peak reflection, generating lamellar TiO<sub>2</sub>
mesostructure after the biotemplate removal by calcination. More prominently,
this straightforward method can be extended to couple TiO<sub>2</sub> with
other metal oxides, improving the light-harvesting and charge carriers
separation of these photocatalysts, in particular for boosting hydrogen
generation. This foolproof approach opens new doors for the development of
nanostructured materials for solar energy conversion and catalysis.<br></p></div>
Chiral Nematic Coatings Based on Cellulose Nanocrystals as a Multiplexing Platform for Humidity Sensing and Dual Anticounterfeiting
