Open AccessPhotocatalitic Activity of N-doping TiO2 Thin Films Deposited by the Sol-Gel Technique
Author(s) -
William Vallejo,
Daniela Calderón,
Carlos DíazUribe
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/1541/1/012016
Subject(s) - materials science , raman spectroscopy , anatase , photocatalysis , thin film , titanium dioxide , doping , sol gel , band gap , chemical engineering , spectroscopy , diffuse reflectance infrared fourier transform , visible spectrum , analytical chemistry (journal) , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , optics , composite material , organic chemistry , catalysis , chemistry , physics , engineering , quantum mechanics
Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is a very stable semiconductor physically and chemically, it is an abundant material and harmless to nature. Currently, TiO 2 is one of the most used photocatalysts to degrade organic molecules in both water and air during purification processes. In this work, we fabricated Nitrogen-doped TiO 2 powders by the Sol-Gel method, the Titanium tetraisopropoxide and urea were as reagents; subsequently, the materials were supported as thin films on glass using the technique of Doctor Blade. The materials were characterized by using different analytical techniques such as Raman spectroscopy, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The XRD results indicated that TiO 2 films presented a single crystalline phase, corresponding to the anatase. Besides, Raman spectroscopy verified the nitrogen incorporation in the crystal lattice of TiO 2 after the doping process. Furthermore, DRS results showed an improvement in optical photo-response at the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, the band-gap narrowing was verified from 3.25 eV for unmodified TiO 2 thin films until 2.84 eV TiO 2 –N(5%) thin films. Finally, the photocatalytic activity of materials was studied during methylene blue (MB) degradation, the photocatalytic degradation results indicated the doping process enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible irradiation.