A simple route in fabricating carbon-modified titania films with glucose and their visible-light-responsive photocatalytic activity

Abstract

Carbon-modified titania (C–TiO2) films were easily prepared by using an impregnation process with a glucose-containing TiO2 sol. Through controlling calcination conditions, the as-obtained C–TiO2 products exhibited highly photocatalytic activity for the degradation of gaseous NOx under visible light and ultraviolet illumination. The effects of carbon content and calcination temperature on the photocatalytic performances and their photochemical and physical properties were investigated. Carbonaceous species on the TiO2 surface enhanced the visible-light absorption of TiO2 films; however, an excessive amount of carbon on the TiO2 surface reduced its photocatalytic ability due to the serious coverage effect on active sites. The results show that a suitable glucose addition is about 50–100% of the weight of TiO2 content and the optimized calcination temperature is 300 °C, which leads to better photocatalytic activity under ultraviolet and visible-light irradiations. Accordingly, the simple-prepared C–TiO2 films functioned as visible-light-responsive catalysts, allowing for a feasible producing route for real applications.