Abstract
Developing visible-light-responsive TiO2-based photocatalysts provides a promising avenue for addressing VOCs pollution. Herein, polydopamine (PDA) template pyrolysis waste was in-situ up-cycled for simultaneous growth of N and C co-doped hollow porous TiO2 microreactors (H-NT-0.2) in air. The resulting H-NT-0.2 with a highly intact hollow structure, thin spherical shell (∼ 13 nm) and high porosity possesses the highest N and C co-doping ratio and largest oxygen vacancies (OVs) amount, leading to the highest concentration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) among all H-NT-x. A crucial role of OVs in enhancing H2O adsorption for the generation of hydroxyl radicals (⋅OH) has been revealed by DFT calculations. As a result, H-NT-0.2 shows the highest photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) efficiency of flowing acetaldehyde gas (90%) under visible light irradiation, which exceeds 3.5 times of commercial TiO2 (P25)), and outperforms most of the reported photocatalysts. The growth mechanism, as well as the photocatalytic reaction pathways, were analyzed based on TG-MS and in-situ DRIFTS results, respectively. This work provides an economical, green and feasible strategy to develop advanced visible-light-responsive photocatalysts for aldehydes VOCs abatement in practical applications.
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