Photocatalytic effect of carbon-modified n-TiO2 nanoparticles under visible light illumination

The present research focused on wet process synthesis of visible light active carbon-modified (CM)-n-TiO2 nanoparticles and their photocatalytic activity. The CM-n-TiO2 was synthesized by hydrolysis of TiCl4 in the presence of tetrabutylammonium hydroxide and also in the presence of glucose and sodium hydroxide. UV–vis spectra, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and FT-IR were used to characterize these photocatalysts. It was found that the CM-n-TiO2 nanoparticles synthesized by hydrolysis with tetrabutylammonium hydroxide or with sodium hydroxide and glucose when subjected to extended aging and subsequent calcinations absorb well into the visible to near infrared region up to 800 nm and exhibit enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity on degradation of 4-chlorophenol. CM-n-TiO2 synthesized using glucose as the carbon source generated 13-fold increase in the initial rate of photodegradation of 4-chlorophenol compared to those by regular n-TiO2, whereas, it increased only eight-fold when tetrabutylammonium hydroxide was used as the carbon source.