Low temperature synthesis of pure anatase carbon doped titanium dioxide: An efficient visible light active photocatalyst

Low temperature pure anatase Carbon Doped Titanium Dioxide (C-TiO2) is successfully synthesized by using starch as an effective, economical, and nonhazardous carbon source. The synthesized C-TiO2 has been further characterized by X-Ray Diffraction, SEM, TEM, BET, XPS and UV- DRS techniques, which reveal that the particles are crystalline with spherical morphology, high surface area and an optical band gap of 2.79 eV for C-TiO2 calcined at 400 degrees C. Furthermore photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B dye was carried out using as-prepared C-TiO2 under visible light irradiation, Prepared C-TiO2 calcined at 200 degrees C and 400 degrees C show higher degradation efficiency (85% and 100% in 120 min respectively) as compared to that of undoped TiO2 and commercial Degussa P-25. Result shows that the C-TiO2. containing lower carbon percentage has higher photocatalytic activity. Thus enhanced photocatalytic activity of C-TiO2, may be due to synergic effect of carbon doping and [101] facet enhanced synthesis of anatase C-TiO2.