TiO2-based powder materials have been widely studied as efficient photocatalysts for water splitting due to their low cost, photo-responsivity, earthly abundance, chemical and thermal stability, etc. In particular, the recent breakthrough of nitrogen-doped TiO2, which enhances the presence of structural defects and dopant impurities at elevated temperatures, exhibits an impressive visible-light absorption for photocatalytic activity. Although their electronic and optical properties have been extensively studied, the structure-activity relationship and photocatalytic mechanism remain ambiguous. Herein, we report an in-depth structural study of rutile, anatase and mixed phases (commercial P25) with and without nitrogen-doping by variable-temperature synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction. We report that an unusual anisotropic thermal expansion of the anatase phase can reveal the intimate relationship between sub-surface oxygen vacancies, nitrogen-doping level and photocatalytic activity. For highly doped anatase, a new cubic titanium oxynitride phase is also identified which provides important information on the fundamental shift in absorption wavelength, leading to excellent photocatalysis using visible light.
CITATION STYLE
Foo, C., Li, Y., Lebedev, K., Chen, T., Day, S., Tang, C., & Tsang, S. C. E. (2021). Characterisation of oxygen defects and nitrogen impurities in TiO2 photocatalysts using variable-temperature X-ray powder diffraction. Nature Communications, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-20977-z
Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.