Photocatalytic activities of nitrogen-doped TiO2 synthesized by reflux method

Abstract

N-doped TiO2 powder was prepared by hydrolyzing titanium precursor combined with refluxing at the temperature around 1000C. Effects of N doping, refluxing time, and the presence of H2O2 in the refluxed solution on the formation of TiO2 and their photocatalytic activities were investigated. The samples were characterized by XRD, FE-SEM, DRS, FTIR, BET, and EDS. Their photocatalytic activities were characterized by photodegradation of methylene blue under UV and VIS radiation. Results showed that the N-doped TiO2 samples presented higher photocatalytic activities than undoped sample. The N-doped TiO2 refluxed in H2O2 solution performed porous samples with mixture of anatase and rutil, leading to higher surface area and higher photocatalytic activities than those refluxed in water. Increasing the reflux time from 2 hours to 10 hours improved the crystallinity of samples, but insignificantly affected phase composition as well as photocatalytic activities of N-doped TiO2.