Improvement of Photocatalytic Degradation of Titanium Dioxide Nanomaterials by Non-metal Doping

Abstract

Semiconductor photocatalysis is a process that benefits from sunlight to start chemical reactions. In order to take advantage photocatalytic properties of semiconductors and to achieve better performance structural adjustment is needed. In this study, varying amounts of nitrogen were used to modify TiO2 nanostructures using the sol-gel method. The crystalline structure of the synthesized TiO2 nanostructures was studied using the X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was conducted to analyse the elemental composition of nanomaterials. XPS analyze confirms that nitrogen is introduced into the lattice of TiO2. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) under UV irradiation was employed to assess the photocatalytic performance of the samples. To evaluate degradation, the absorption of MB over time was measured using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. As a result, the doping process has been found to improve the photocatalytic performance of TiO2, and 0.2% N doped TiO2 nanostructures demonstrated superior photocatalytic activity for photocatalytic degradation of MB.