N-loaded TiO2 for photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange under visible light irradiation

Authors

Natkritta Boonprakob, Uttaradit Rajabhat University
Natda Wetchakun, Chiang Mai University
Sukon Phanichphant, Chiang Mai University
Jun Chen, University of WollongongFollow
Burapat Inceesungvorn, Chiang Mai University, Thailand

RIS ID

74924

Publication Details

Boonprakob, N., Wetchakun, N., Phanichphant, S., Chen, J. & Inceesungvorn, B. (2013). N-loaded TiO2 for photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange under visible light irradiation. Advanced Materials Research, 622 883-888.

Abstract

Nitrogen-loaded TiO2 (N-loaded TiO2), a visible-light driven catalyst, was successfully synthesized by the modified sol-gel method. Physical characterizations of the as-prepared catalysts have been performed by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Diffuse reflectance UV−vis spectroscopy (DR UV−vis), Raman spectroscopy and BET specific surface area in order to obtain structure-activity relationship. Results from Raman spectroscopy clearly suggested that N atoms were incorporated into the TiO2 crystal lattice as evidenced by the vibrational peak of Ti−N in TiO2-xNx. DR UV−vis results also suggested that the nitrogen dopant might be responsible for narrowing the TiO2 band gap energy, thus resulting in a shift towards the visible light region. Photocatalytic activity of N-loaded TiO2 evaluated through the degradation of methyl orange (MO) under visible light irradiation (λ > 400 nm) indicated that all N-loaded photocatalysts exhibited significantly higher activities than the unloaded TiO2 and Degussa P25 TiO2. According to the results from DR UV-vis, XRD and BET studies, the enhanced photoactivity observed from N-loaded samples might be due to a decrease in TiO2 band gap energy and/or changes in chemical and physical properties of the materials upon loading with nitrogen.