N-doped nanocrystalline titania microspheres with controlled visible light absorption were obtained by a new route utilizing a heterogeneous hydrolysis of TiCl 4 vapor with reactive droplets of aqueous aerosols, followed by instant calcination of the products in a preheated flow reactor. Thus prepared separate microspheres with a diameter of 0.5-3 microns were found to consist of anatase or rutile nanocrystals, depending on the parameters of the synthesis. Doped titania samples with different nitrogen contents were synthesized using water solutions with various concentrations of urea in the hydrolyzing aerosols. N À species were found to be a major form of nitrogen impurity. A plausible mechanism for the incorporation of nitrogen into titanium dioxide was proposed. The photocatalytic activity of the obtained powders under UV-visible or visible illumination was found to have a complex dependence on the calcination temperature and the titania doping level.
ExperimentalThe experimental setup consists of two main parts, the rst for vaporized TiCl 4 hydrolysis with a water-based aerosol, and the
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.