Synthesis of N-doped TiO2 Nanoparticle by Solvothermal Method for Dye Treatment

Abstract

Nitrogen-doped titanium dioxide (NT) was synthesized by solvothermal method. Titanium (IV) butoxide (TBOT) was used as a titanium source and diethyleneamine (DEA) was used as a nitrogen source. The DEA concentration was fixed at 5% mol. The effect of the synthesized temperatures was studied (150 °C to 200 °C). The characterization results showed that the XRD patterns of NT synthesized by solvothermal method exhibited only anatase structure of TiO2 at 25.56° (101), 37.76° (004), 48.04° (200), 48.18° (105), 54.06° (211), 55.24° (204), 62.76° (116), 69.04° (220), 70.32° (215) and 75.30° (303). The crystallite sizes of NT (13-14 nm) were smaller than that of TiO2 (22.39 nm) while the surface area of NT (31-47 m2g-1) was larger than that of TiO2 (6.42 m2g-1). This indicated that doping N on TiO2 had a significant effect on crystallite size and surface area of TiO2. The photocatalytic activities of NT were evaluated by decolorization of 10-5 M methylene blue (MB) under LED visible light irradiation. The result showed that the photocatalytic performance of TiO2 was significantly improved by N dopant with the efficiency of 90%. However, the synthesized temperatures had no significant effect on the physical properties and the photocatalytic reactivity of NT.