Facile fabrication of heterostructured TiO2−xNx/CNFs as an efficient visible-light responsive photocatalyst

A novel TiO2−xNx/CNFs heterostructured photocatalyst was facilely fabricated by stabilization, NH4OH pretreatment and carbonization of electrospun TiO(OAc)2/PAN hybrid nanofibers. The uniformly aligned CNFs were interspersed with 25 wt% of anatase TiO2−xNx nanoparticles, in which the x value or doped N atomic ratio was ∼0.52%. The TiO2−xNx/CNFs had a considerable surface area of 130 m2/g and extraordinary mesoporous morphology. Owing to the synergistic effect between high adsorption capacity of CNFs and excellent vis-photocatalytic activity of TiO2−xNx nanoparticles, the TiO2−xNx/CNFs showed higher photocatalytic efficiency than referenced TiO2/CNFs and TiO2−xNx powders.