A Novel Single-Mode Microwave Assisted Synthesis of Metal Oxide as Visible-light Photocatalyst

TL;DR

This paper presents a new single-mode microwave synthesis method for producing TiO2 photocatalysts with enhanced visible-light absorption and photocatalytic activity due to Ti3+ self-doping, requiring less energy and time.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel microwave-assisted synthesis process for TiO2 that achieves self-doping and improved visible-light photocatalytic performance in a single step.

Findings

Ti3+ self-doped TiO2 has a narrower bandgap (2.14 eV)

The synthesized TiO2 outperforms commercial TiO2 in degrading Rhodamine B

The process is energy-efficient and rapid

Abstract

Visible-light photocatalyst titanium dioxide (TiO2) was successfully prepared via a novel and facile single-mode microwave assisted synthesis process. In this one-step synthesis, Ti as target material selectively oxides in magnetic field throughout rapid heating, whose process requires less energy consumption and short time. In obtained TiO2, self-doping of Ti3+ was confirmed, which makes TiO2 performed sufficient light absorption in visible region with wavelength above 400 nm. Such Ti3+ self-doped TiO2 exhibits much narrower optical bandgap (2.14 eV) to compare with stoichiometric TiO2 (3.0-3.2 eV). The synthesized TiO2 also shows superior photocatalytic activity to commercially available TiO2 towards the degradation of Rhodamine B under visible light irradiation.