Synthesis and Photocatalytic of Nitrogen Doped Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles

Abstract

In this research, Nitrogen doped Titanium dioxide nanoparticles with (N-doped TiO₂) different amount of urea content (0.125, 0.25 and 0.5 %w/v) were synthesized via sol-gel method. The prepared samples were annealed with 500^oC for 2 h to get anatase phase. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and UV-visible spectrophotometer (UV-vis) were used to characterize the prepared samples. The results showed that, the energy band gap decreased with increasing the urea content. The photocatalytic efficiency of the prepared samples was evaluated by the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under UV and visible light irradiation. The photocatalytic results showed that the N-doped TiO₂ nanoparticles exhibit an enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light compared with that of pure TiO2 nanoparticles. The maximum degradation of 48.5% was achieved at neutral pH for 12.5 mg/l of methylene blue solution with 0.5 %w/v N-doped TiO₂ nanoparticles.