Effects of Defects on Photocatalytic Activity of Hydrogen-Treated Titanium Oxide Nanobelts

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that hydrogen treatment leads to the formation of blue to black TiO2, which exhibits photocatalytic activity different from that of white pristine TiO2. However, the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. Herein, density functional theory is combined with comprehensive analytical approaches such as X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy and transient absorption spectroscopy to gain fundamental understanding of the correlation among the oxygen vacancy, electronic band structure, charge separation, charge carrier lifetime, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and photocatalytic activity. The present work reveals that hydrogen treatment results in chemical reduction of TiO2, inducing surface and subsurface oxygen vacancies, which create shallow and deep sub-band gap Ti(III) states below the conduction band. This leads to a blue color but limited enhancement of visible light photocatalytic activity up to 440 nm at the cost of reduced ultraviolet photocataly...