Facile route to fabricate carbon-doped TiO_2 nanoparticles and its mechanism of enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity

摘要

High-efficiency photocatalysis requires wide photoresponse range and effective separation of photo-generated charges to fully utilize solar energy. Exploring the simple and cheap methods to synthesize efficient pho-tocatalysts is still a challenging issue. Herein, we report a facile and simple room-temperature hydrolysis method using glucose as carbon source to prepare visible light-active C-doped TiO_2 photocatalyst. This approach features low-cost, reliable, and easily upscalable. It is found that C atoms have been incorporated into the interstitial position of anatase TiO_2 lattice and distributed homogeneously throughout the surface of TiO_2 nanoparticles. The appropriate C doping can greatly improve the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs in C-doped TiO_2. The C-doped TiO_2 samples exhibit enhanced photocatalytic activity with the degradation efficiency under UV and visible light irradiation, which is much faster than that of pure TiO_2. The mechanism of the enhanced photocatalytic activity is discussed in detail, which is confirmed by using different scavengers. The work provides a simple and useful way to prepare C-doped wide-gap semiconductors with enhanced photocatalytic activity.