Synthesis of N-doped TiO2 nanoparticles with enhanced photocatalytic activity for 2,4-dichlorophenol degradation and H2 production

Nitrogen-doped titanium dioxide (N-TiO2) nanoparticles were prepared using a modified sol-gel method. The asprepared nanoparticles were characterized by state-of-the-art techniques for their optical, structural and morphological properties. The crystallite size, surface area and bandgap energy of reference TiO2 and N-TiO2 nanoparticles were found to be 16.1 and 10.9 nm, 83.6 and 131.8 m2 g-1 and 3.23 and 2.89 eV, respectively. The photocatalytic activities, in terms of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) degradation, of reference TiO2 and N-TiO2 were found to be 46.9% and 65.4% at 120 min of treatments under UV light irradiation and 21.5% and 77.6% at 240 min of treatment under visible light irradiation, employing 153.4 mu M 2,4-DCP, 1 g/L photocatalyst dosage, and pH 5.6. Interestingly, considerable H2 production rate (i.e., 386 mu mol h-1 g-1) was observed for visible/NTiO2 system in presence of 0.2 wt% Pt. The study revealed that visible/N-TiO2 photocatalytic system can be used as an economically viable technology for environmental sustainability.

Automated summary

In this study, nitrogen-doped titanium dioxide (N-TiO2) nanoparticles were prepared using a modified sol-gel method, and their optical, structural, and morphological properties were characterized using state-of-the-art techniques. The results showed that nitrogen doping increased the surface area and decreased the bandgap energy of TiO2 nanoparticles, leading to enhanced photocatalytic activity and hydrogen production. This suggests that the visible/N-TiO2 photocatalytic system has economic viability and environmental sustainability.