Preparation of high surface area LaTiO2N photocatalyst

Nanocrystalline LaTiO2N with a surface area of 27.5 m2/g was synthesized by nitridation of amorphous La2O3/TiO2 composite powder at 900 °C for 8 h using NH3 as the reactant gas. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results revealed that the as-prepared LaTiO2N nanocrystals had a mean diameter of about 30 nm. It was found that the absorption edge of the oxynitride is significantly red-shifted compared with that of La2Ti2O7 as increasing the nitridation temperature. The UV–vis absorption spectra indicated that the synthesized oxynitrides displayed good light absorption properties not only in the ultraviolet light but also in the visible-light region.