Influence of N-Doping on the Structure and Electronic Properties of Titania Nanoparticle Photocatalysts

• Published in: The journal of physical chemistry. B Vol. 110; no. 33; pp. 16482 - 16486
• Main Authors: Stewart, Silvana J, Fernández-García, Marcos, Belver, Carolina, Mun, B. Simon, Requejo, Félix G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 24.08.2006
• ISSN: 1520-6106; 1520-5207
• DOI: 10.1021/jp0624451

N-containing TiO2-based nanostructured materials (average particle size ∼10 nm) with an anatase-type structure were investigated using oxygen (O) K-edge and titanium (Ti) K- and L-edge X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES). The Ti K pre-edge features indicate that samples predominantly contain [6]Ti with some [5]Ti, and there is no evidence for [4]Ti. We observed that those samples with a larger fraction of Ti in a fivefold coordination, that is, with a significant number of oxygen vacancies, also present a modified Ti environment at the medium-range scale. The presence of these defects drastically modifies the electronic structure of the conduction band, as evidenced by the O K XANES spectra, but does not result in the presence of reduced Ti3+ states. We discuss the influence of N-doping on titania nanoparticles and their structure, electronics and photocatalytic activity.