Issue 8, 2014

Doping high-surface-area mesoporous TiO2 microspheres with carbonate for visible light hydrogen production

Abstract

First-principles calculations suggest that doping TiO2 with carbonate can effectively reduce the bandgap of TiO2, thus making TiO2 photoactive in the visible region of the solar spectrum. Herein we report a simple “one-pot” solvothermal method for synthesizing brown carbonate-doped TiO2 microspheres. The diameter of the TiO2 microsphere is tunable from ∼0.5 to 4 μm with the nanopore size in the range of 3–11 nm. Remarkably, the specific surface area of these nanoporous anatase TiO2 microspheres can be as high as 500 m2 g−1. A controllable amount of carbonate could be incorporated into TiO2 through low-temperature post-synthesis annealing, which extends the light absorption of the TiO2 microspheres from the ultraviolet to the visible region of the solar spectrum. Very high photocatalytic activity of these carbonate-doped TiO2 microspheres was demonstrated in the visible light region for both photocatalytic production of hydrogen from water and degradation of methyl orange. Under 3 Sun visible-light illumination (λ ≥ 400 nm), the carbonate-doped TiO2 microspheres can produce 0.2 mmol H2 h−1 g−1 of photocatalyst, which is significantly higher than those from various other TiO2 photocatalysts.

Graphical abstract: Doping high-surface-area mesoporous TiO2 microspheres with carbonate for visible light hydrogen production

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
14 Jan 2014
Accepted
18 Feb 2014
First published
18 Feb 2014

Energy Environ. Sci., 2014,7, 2592-2597

Doping high-surface-area mesoporous TiO2 microspheres with carbonate for visible light hydrogen production

B. Liu, L. Liu, X. Lang, H. Wang, X. W. (. Lou and E. S. Aydil, Energy Environ. Sci., 2014, 7, 2592 DOI: 10.1039/C4EE00472H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements