Sintering effect on N-doped TiO2 nanoparticles for photocatalytic applications

COLL 286

Yixin Zhao, Xiaofeng Qiu, and Clemens Burda, burda@case.edu. Department of Chemistry, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44106
The N-doped titanium oxide participate was synthesized by hydrolysis N-substituted Ti isopropoxide. A thermogravimetric analysis of the solid participates shows the influence of the sintering treatment. The synthesized nanomaterials were post-treated by using temperatures and sintering times selected from thermogravimetric analysis. The organic residue on surface of these post-treated samples was characterized by ATR-FTIR. The morphologies and crystallinity of these sinter-treated nanomaterial was characterized by TEM and XRD. The nitrogen concentrations of these samples were measured by XPS. The photo properties of these post-treated samples were characterized by UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra. The photocatalytic activity of these samples was studied by photodecomposition of methylene blue, a model chemical for photoactivity measurements. These studies demonstrated that the sintering temperature and time imposed a significant effect on the photoactivities of the N-doped TiO2 nanomaterial, so that the organic residues will be removed by sintering and the nitrogen doping level will be retained for optimized catalysis.