Plasmon Ag decorated 3D urchinlike N-TiO2-x for enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance

Jiaojiao Jiang; Zipeng Xing; Meng Li; Zhenzi Li; Junwei Yin; Junyan Kuang; Jinlong Zou; Qi Zhu; Wei Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2018.03.030

Plasmon Ag decorated 3D urchinlike N-TiO_2-x for enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2018 Jul 1:521:102-110. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.03.030. Epub 2018 Mar 12.

Authors

Jiaojiao Jiang¹, Zipeng Xing², Meng Li¹, Zhenzi Li³, Junwei Yin¹, Junyan Kuang¹, Jinlong Zou¹, Qi Zhu⁴, Wei Zhou⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Science, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, PR China.
² Department of Environmental Science, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, PR China. Electronic address: xingzipeng@hlju.edu.cn.
³ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150086, PR China.
⁴ Department of Environmental Science, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, PR China. Electronic address: hdzhuqi@hlju.edu.cn.
⁵ Department of Environmental Science, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, PR China. Electronic address: zhouwei1@hlju.edu.cn.

PMID: 29554574
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.03.030

Abstract

Plasmon Ag decorated 3D urchinlike N-TiO_2-x photocatalysts are successfully synthesized by a facile hydrothermal treatment (180 °C) and combined with a photo-deposition approach, followed by a reduction treatment. The results show that the resultant Ag/N-TiO_2-x sample possesses a three-dimensional (3D) urchinlike nanostructure with high crystallinity of anatase. Meanwhile, it exhibits the narrow optical band gap (Eg ∼ 2.61 eV) and the excellent visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance. Moreover, the hydrogen generation rate and photocatalytic degradation rate of phenol are up to 186.2 μmol h^-1 g^-1 and 97.7% under visible light irradiation, which are about 4.2 and 5.4 folds greater than that of N-TiO₂. The mechanism of photocatalytic process is also proposed, and the enhanced photocatalytic property is mainly due to the synergistic reaction of the Ti³⁺ and N codoping, which narrows the band gap and favors the utilization of visible light, and the plasmon effect of Ag nanoparticles and unique 3D urchinlike architecture, which are propitious to the separation and transmission of photogenerated carriers.

Keywords: 3D urchinlike N-TiO(2−x); Ag; Plasmon; Ti(3+) self-doping; Visible-light-driven photocatalysis.