One‐Pot Synthesis of Nitrogen‐doped TiO₂ Nanowires with Enhanced Photocurrent Generation

Abstract

A nitrogen‐doped TiO2 (N‐TiO2) nanowire film was synthesized via a one‐pot hydrothermal method using triethylamine as nitrogen source. The effect of the concentration of the triethylamine on the films was evaluated. In addition, the N‐TiO2 nanowires were characterized using field‐emission scanning electron microscopy (FE‐SEM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy. A 3.2× enhancement of the photocurrent for N‐TiO2 (0.6) was achieved over the as‐prepared TiO2 nanowire, under AM1.5G solar illumination. This was due to nitrogen doping, which could narrow the bandgap of titania to extend the adsorption of the catalyst to the visible light region.

Nanoporous Pt/TiO2 nanocomposites with greatly enhanced photocatalytic performance

“…However, the photocatalytic efficiency of TiO 2 is poor because of its wide bandgap between 3.02 and 3.2 eV ; therefore, it can harvest only the less abundant UV portion of the solar spectrum, which is less than 5% of the available solar energy . In addition, the excited‐state conduction band (CB) electrons and valence band (VB) holes will recombine and dissipate the input energy in the form of heat or emitted light .…”