Hydrothermal synthesis of N-doped TiO2 nanowires and N-doped graphene heterostructures with enhanced photocatalytic properties

Abstract

a b s t r a c t N-doped TiO 2 nanowire/N-doped graphene (NeTiO 2 /NG) heterojunctions are fabricated by a simple hydrothermal method in a solution containing urea. In this hybrid structure, a three-dimensional hybrid photocatalyst was fabricated by using one-dimensional N-doped TiO 2 nanowires penetrating through twodimensional graphene nanosheets. Compared with TiO 2 nanowire/graphene and N-doped TiO 2 nanowire/ graphene composites, the NeTiO 2 /NG heterostructures demonstrate a better photocatalytic performance for the degradation of methylene blue under visible light irradiations, as well as displaying a better recyclability. It is found that the nitrogen atoms originated from the decomposition of urea were not only entered into the lattice of TiO 2 nanowires but also doped into the skeleton of graphene nanosheets. Results show that N doping expands the visible light absorption region of TiO 2 , and N-doped graphene additionally improves the separation and transportation of photogenerated electronehole pairs plus generating a higher photocurrent, which plays a critical role for enhancing the photocatalytic activity.

Modulating the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 (P25) with lanthanum and graphene oxide

“…The materials with GO showed high absorption in the visible region, which decreased slightly with increasing amounts of lanthanum, from 0 to 0.5%. All composites containing GO are greyish, so it expected that the high absorption of these photocatalysts is due to the is presence of GO [35]. According to previous reports [31,36], chemical Ti-O-C bonds were formed when the photocatalysts were prepared under the same experimental conditions.…”

Photocatalytic Activity of Bi2O3 Enhanced by the Addition of Ce3+/Ce4+ Synthesized by Ethylene Glycol‐assisted Solvothermal Method

“…The smaller semicircle in Nyquist plot indicated the lower electron transfer resistance and effective separation of photo‐generated electron‐hole pairs. . Figure b showed the EIS spectra for Ce‐doped Bi 2 O 3 with different Ce content.…”

Nanocarbons with Different Dimensions as Noble-Metal-Free Co-Catalysts for Photocatalysts

“…It was found that when using the composites as photocatalysts for the degradation of MB, the degradation rate in the second cycle is faster than that in the first cycle because GO in the composites is reduced to RGO. Liu and coworkers [103] fabricated N-doped TiO 2 nanowires/N-doped graphene (N-TiO 2 /NG) nanocomposites. N-TiO 2 /NG nanocomposites exhibit higher photocatalytic performance than TiO 2 nanowire/graphene composites and N-doped TiO 2 nanowire/graphene composites for degradation of MB under visible light irradiation.…”