Fabrication of Z-Type TiN@(A,R)TiO2 Plasmonic Photocatalyst with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity

Abstract

Plasmonic effect-enhanced Z-type heterojunction photocatalysts comprise a promising solution to the two fundamental problems of current TiO2-based photocatalysis concerning low-charge carrier separation efficiency and low utilization of solar illumination. A plasmonic effect-enhanced TiN@anatase-TiO2/rutile-TiO2 Z-type heterojunction photocatalyst with the strong interface of the N–O chemical bond was synthesized by hydrothermal oxidation of TiN. The prepared photocatalyst shows desirable visible light absorption and good visible-light-photocatalytic activity. The enhancement in photocatalytic activities contribute to the plasma resonance effect of TiN, the N–O bond-connected charge transfer channel at the TiO2/TiN heterointerface, and the synergistically Z-type charge transfer pathway between the anatase TiO2 (A-TiO2) and rutile TiO2 (R-TiO2). The optimization study shows that the catalyst with a weight ratio of A-TiO2/R-TiO2/TiN of approximately 15:1:1 achieved the best visible light photodegradation activity. This work demonstrates the effectiveness of fabricating plasmonic effect-enhanced Z-type heterostructure semiconductor photocatalysts with enhanced visible-light-photocatalytic activities.