Tuning the optical band Gap of pure TiO2 via photon induced method

Abstract

Titanium dioxide, a well known photocatalyst will become more useful if it utilizes visible light. Many efforts have been made to achieve the utilization of visible light by TiO2 for photocatalytic activity by changing the preparation methods or by doping various transition metals. Herein, a novel Photon Induced Method (PIM) is being proposed to produce oxygen-rich TiO2 with modified optical band gap and high stability. The prepared TiO2 nanoparticles have been subjected to various characterizations such as XRD, HRSEM, HRTEM, FTIR, UV–vis and PL. XRD results reveal that as the calcination temperature is increased, the crystallite size of the TiO2 nanoparticles is seen to increase. Also, the XRD results reveal an increase in pure anatase phase stability upto 750 °C when compared to earlier reports of pure anatase phase stability upto 650 °C. HRTEM analysis shows the formation of nanosized bullet like structure. A narrowing of optical band gap to 3.09 eV is evident through UV–vis absorption studies. This tuning of band gap is expected to facilitate the absorption of visible light. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared TiO2 nanoparticles has also been studied. The results reveal that TiO2 nanoparticles prepared by this novel method exhibit an increased photocatalytic activity when compared to the standard Degussa P25 sample reported earlier.