Toward enhancement of TiO2 surface defect sites related to photocatalytic activity via facile nitrogen doping strategy

Abstract

This study examined the catalytic activities of three distinct N-Pd@TiO2 nanoparticles, post-annealed (at 700, 800, and 900 degrees C) after fabrication on silicon substrates. Systematically, HRPES and SPEM indicated that nitrogen was predominantly doped around PdO nanostructure. Particularly, we prove that photocatalytic activity in effective nitrogen doped surface area is far higher than in undoped area of Pd@TiO2 nanoparticles by measuring for oxidation reaction of benzenethiol, thioacetic acid, and thiobenzoic acid. Besides to the band gap narrowing, nitrogen doping leads to generate Ti3+ species or oxygen vacancies site of the surface, which leads to enhance the activity of surface photocatalysis. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved