Facile synthesis of tunable carbon modified mesoporous TiO2 for visible light photocatalytic application

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a simple and novel approach for preparing tunable carbon-modified mesoporous TiO2 photocatalysts by combining the in-situ carbonization of PAA-Ti/TiO2, hydrothermal reaction process and post-calcination treatment. The synthesized carbon-modified mesoporous TiO2 powders were of high crystallinity, large specific surface area and good visible light response. The carbon species were formed by the carbonization of polyacrylate (PAA). The presence of carbonates was subsequently confirmed by the XPS spectra, which significantly narrow down the band gap of TiO2. The organic group in polyacrylate served as the carbon source and carbon resulted from in-situ carbonization treatment could help to inhibit the excessive growth of TiO2 grain and enlarge the pore structure of TiO2. The amount of carbon species could be feasibly modulated by adjusting the post-calcination temperature and the surface area of the photocatalyst was enlarged further after the partial removal of carbon species. The carbon-modified mesoporous TiO2 powders exhibit excellent reproducibility and photocatalytic performance under visible light irradiation.