Synthesis and Characterization of Pure and Nitrogen Doped Titanium Oxide Nanocrystallites for Visible Light Photocatalytic Applications

Abstract

The pure and nitrogen doped titanium oxide (TiO2) nanocrystallites were synthesized using sol-gel technique. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized to examine the microstructural, optical and photocatalytic properties. The XRD studies of pure and doped TiO2 showed the formation of polycrystalline tetragonal structure with anatase phase. The crystallite sizes were calculated and found to be 17 and 15 nm for the pure and N-doped TiO2, respectively. FTIR studies indicated that the N-doped TiO2 bands are stronger compared with pure TiO2, indicating the more hydroxyl groups. FESEM studies showed the uniform formation of TiO2 nanocrystallites and spherical in shape with agglomeration. The photoluminescence spectra of the samples show emission peaks, indicating the band to band shift having the energy gap of 2.9 eV. The photocatalytic performance of the nanocatalyst was studied using methylene blue dye under visible light irradiation for 90 min. The photocatalytic efficiency of 66.9% and 85.8% is obtained for the pure and N-doped TiO2, respectively.