Synthesis of high visible light active carbon doped TiO2 photocatalyst by a facile calcination assisted solvothermal method

• Published in: Applied catalysis. B, Environmental Vol. 142-143; pp. 450 - 457
• Main Authors: Wu, Xiaoyong, Yin, Shu, Dong, Qiang, Guo, Chongshen, Li, Huihui, Kimura, Takeshi, Sato, Tsugio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier B.V 01.10.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adsorbents; Calcination assisted solvothermal reaction; Carbon doped TiO2; Catalysis; Chemistry; Exact sciences and technology; General and physical chemistry; Photocatalytic activity; Photochemistry; Physical chemistry of induced reactions (with radiations, particles and ultrasonics); Surface physical chemistry; Theory of reactions, general kinetics. Catalysis. Nomenclature, chemical documentation, computer chemistry; Visible light; Carbon doped TiO2; Photocatalytic activity; Visible light; Calcination assisted solvothermal reaction; Binary compound; Photocatalysis; Transition element compounds; Carbon; Photocatalyst; Heterogeneous catalysis; Synthesis; Carbon doped TiO; Activated carbon; Titanium oxide; Environmental protection
• ISSN: 0926-3373; 1873-3883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2013.05.052

High visible light photocatalytic activities of carbon doped TiO2 prepared by a facile calcination assisted solvothermal method. •Carbon doped TiO2 photocatalyst was successfully synthesized by a simple method.•C–TiO2 showed excellent visible light induced photocatalytic activities.•C–TiO2 photocatalyst possessed higher activity than those of P-25 and N–TiO2.•38% of 1ppm NO could be continuous decomposed under 510nm visible light irradiation. The carbon doped TiO2 powders have been successfully prepared by a facile calcination assisted solvothermal method using titanium tetra-n-butoxide or TiCl3 together with ethanol as starting materials without the addition of any other extra carbon sources. The physicochemical properties of as-synthesized samples were characterized by the X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, BET specific surface area, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Besides, the effects of post solvothermal reaction heating temperature and raw materials on the carbon doping in TiO2 have been investigated. The experimental results showed that carbon has been doped into TiO2 lattice by replacing the oxygen site with the production of oxygen vacancy. In addition, carbon doped TiO2 samples exhibited not only very good destruction ability of NO gas but also excellent degradation ability of methyl orange solution under the visible light much superior to P25 and N–TiO2. The employed method in this work provided a favorable evidence that the effect of carbon doping on the properties of samples should be taken into consideration when preparing TiO2 based photocatalyst by a hydrothermal or solvothermal method with the assist of calcination.