Highly visible light active TiO2-xNx heterojunction photocatalysts

Vinodkumar Etacheri, Michael K. Seery, Steven J. Hinder, Suresh C. Pillai

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

diaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) modified sol-gel process.An FT-IR study of EDTA modified TiO2 gel confirms the existence of an ionic intermediate (as indicated by a Δ value of 233 cm-1). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy are employed to study the phase evolution, phase purity, and crystallite size of samples. Formations of O-Ti-N and N-Ti-N bonds in calcined samples are confirmed using XPS and FT-IR spectroscopy. AllEDTAmodified samples show significantly higher visible light photocatalytic activity than the unmodified sample. The most active nitrogen doped heterojunction obtained at 400 °C exhibits 9-fold visible light activity in comparison to the standard photocatalyst Degussa P-25. It is proposed that the photo excited electrons (from the visible midgap level) are effectively transferred from the conduction band of anatase to that of rutile causing effective electron-hole separation, which is responsible for the higher visible light activity and lower photoluminescence (PL) intensity.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3843-3853
Number of pages11
JournalChemistry of Materials
Volume22
Issue number13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Jul 2010
Externally publishedYes

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