Tungsten and nitrogen co‐doped TiO 2 nanobelts with significant visible light photoactivity

• Published in: Surface and interface analysis Vol. 50; no. 2; pp. 146 - 153
• Main Authors: Chen, Hongjian, Wang, Longxuan, Guan, Lixiu, Ren, Hui, Zhang, Yingxin, Tao, Junguang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.02.2018
• ISSN: 0142-2421; 1096-9918
• DOI: 10.1002/sia.6351

Tungsten and nitrogen co‐doped TiO 2 nanobelts (W/N‐TNBs) have been successfully synthesized via 1‐step hydrothermal method. The structure, morphology, and composition of prepared samples were characterized by X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. The prominent phase of all as‐prepared samples is anatase crystal. For samples with N doping, new energy states can be introduced on top of O 2 p states which reduced the band gap by 1.1 eV. The reduced band gap leads to efficient visible light activity. The 3%‐W/N‐TNBs were found to exhibit the highest activity. The photocatalytic performance of 3%‐W/N‐TNBs under visible light is about 4.8 times than that of pure TiO 2 nanobelts, which emphasizes the synergistic effect of W and N co‐doping for effectively inhibiting the recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes. In addition, our results testify the different redox potentials of the photoelectrons at different final states.