Thiourea-Modified TiO₂ Nanorods with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity

Author： Wu Xiaofeng Fang Shun Zheng Yang Sun Jie Lv Kangle

Publisher： MDPI

E-ISSN： 1420-3049|21|2|181-181

ISSN： 1420-3049

Source： Molecules, Vol.21, Iss.2, 2016-02, pp. : 181-181

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Abstract

Semiconductor TiO₂ photocatalysis has attracted much attention due to its potential application in solving the problems of environmental pollution. In this paper, thiourea (CH₄N₂S) modified anatase TiO₂ nanorods were fabricated by calcination of the mixture of TiO₂ nanorods and thiourea at 600 °C for 2 h. It was found that only N element was doped into the lattice of TiO₂ nanorods. With increasing the weight ratio of thiourea to TiO₂ (R) from 0 to 8, the light-harvesting ability of the photocatalyst steady increases. Both the crystallization and photocatalytic activity of TiO₂ nanorods increase first and then decrease with increase in R value, and R2 sample showed the highest crystallization and photocatalytic activity in degradation of Brilliant Red X3B (X3B) and Rhodamine B (RhB) dyes under visible light irradiation (λ > 420 nm). The increased visible-light photocatalytic activity of the prepared N-doped TiO₂ nanorods is due to the synergistic effects of the enhanced crystallization, improved light-harvesting ability and reduced recombination rate of photo-generated electron-hole pairs. Note that the enhanced visible photocatalytic activity of N-doped nanorods is not based on the scarification of their UV photocatalytic activity.