Visible Light Active Nitrogen and Cobalt Co-doped TiO2 Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity

Abstract

A facile and room temperature approach to synthesize pure TiO2 and different variants of nirogen and cobalt co-doped TiO2 (CoN-TiO2) catalysts is reported in this study. The successful synthesis and crystalline phase analysis was carried out via X-ray diffraction (XRD) which confirmed anatase phase with tetragonal structure. The spherical morphology, uniform size distribution in the range of 20-40 nm and presence of dopants in final product were validated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Diffused reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) is deployed for study of optical properties. A reduction in band gap from 3.2 eV for pure TiO2 nanoparticles to 2.34 eV for the 7 wt.%. doped CoN-TiO2 was observed. The photocatlytic activity of pure TiO2, and CoN-TiO2 nanoparticles was studied against methyl orange.The photocatlytic activity of CoN-TiO2 was almost double as compared to undoped TiO2 which proves these catalysts to be very efficient and potential candidate for the wastewater treatment at industrial level.