Fabricating waxberry-shaped N–C–TiO2 composite with excellent visible light catalytic activity

Abstract

Herein, a nitrogen, carbon co-doped anatase and rutile double-phase waxberry-shaped [Formula: see text] composite photocatalyst is prepared with the one-step simple hydrothermal synthesis process, in which P25 was used as the precursor, and urea as the source of nitrogen and carbon. A suitable valence band position (2.52 eV) is provided by [Formula: see text], with more active species (e.g. [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], •[Formula: see text] and •[Formula: see text]) being formed on the active catalysis surface, which is helpful to the redox reaction. Further comparison of experimental results ([Formula: see text] = 3.01 eV) proved that the novel [Formula: see text] has preferable photocatalytic activity. In this study, an ingenious nitrogen- carbon co-doping structure was designed for the improvement of [Formula: see text] photocatalytic performance, which is much for reference of this method to other photocatalyst designs.