Abstract
A series of nitrogen-doped mesoporous TiO2 nanomaterials and nitrogen-doped mesoporous TiO2/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) composites were successfully prepared by hydrothermal method using triammonium citrate as the nitrogen source. The effects of nitrogen and graphene oxide (GO) dopping on the photocatalytic properties of the TiO2 were investigated to optimize preparation conditions. The results showed that all prepared samples were mainly composed of the anatase phase and possessed a mesoporous structure. The use of the triammonium citrate not only significantly increased the specific surface area of the synthesized samples but also caused the partial reduction of GO to RGO, leading to further increase of the specific surface area and the improvement of quantum efficiency of the photogenerated electrons. All synthesized samples showed superior photocatalytic performance for methyl orange solution. Among them, the NMT/RGO-1.8-10 was found to be the best; the degradation rate of methyl orange solution on the sample reached 100% in 30 minutes under visible light irradiation.
Highlights
As extensively reported in the literature, the TiO2 is widely used in many areas, such as environmental pollution control, new energy and biopharmaceuticals, due to its low-cost and nonpollutant properties, and strong chemical stability [1, 2]
The diffraction peaks, which appeared at 2θ = 25:6°, 37.9°, 47.8, 54.2°, 55.3°, and 63.1°, correspond to (101), (004), (200), (105), (211), and (204) crystal faces of anatase-phase TiO2 (JCPDS no. 21-1272) [21], indicating that the prepared nitrogen-doped mesoporous TiO2 nanomaterials all are composed of the anatase phase
The reason of which is that triammonium citrate is a chelating agent, and it can form a network structure with Ti4+ during the reaction
Summary
As extensively reported in the literature, the TiO2 is widely used in many areas, such as environmental pollution control, new energy and biopharmaceuticals, due to its low-cost and nonpollutant properties, and strong chemical stability [1, 2]. Mesoporous TiO2 has a special crystal skeleton and excellent electron transmission properties and has a high specific surface area, and it shows great application potential in the field of wastewater treatment [3, 4]. Graphene is a new two-dimensional honeycomb carbon material. It is composed of a single layer of carbon atoms. It has a specific surface area up to 2630 m2·g-1 and has very high electron mobility, which can rapidly transfer electrons and is beneficial for accelerating many catalytic reactions. Its periodically arranged two-dimensional planar structure makes it become an ideal catalyst carrier [8, 9]
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