Remarkably enhanced sunlight-driven photocatalytic performance of TiO2 by facilely modulating the surface property

The photocatalytic performance of TiO2 is critically dependent on its surface properties; therefore it is feasible to boost the photocatalytic performance of TiO2 by modulating the surface properties of TiO2. In this paper, a series of TiO2 photocatalysts with remarkably enhanced photocatalytic performance were facilely prepared by a Sol-Gel method with the assistance of (NH4)3PO4 and studied by the Brunauer-Emmet Teller (BET) method, X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), surface photovoltage (SPV) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The corresponding photocatalytic activities of the samples for Rhodamine B (RhB) decay were also examined. The obtained results substantially revealed that a much higher specific surface area, separation rate of the photo-induced charge pairs and amount of hydroxyl radicals were produced in (NH4)3PO4-TiO2 photocatalytic system, therefore the TiO2 photocatalysts prepared with the assistance of (NH4)3PO4 display a much higher photocatalytic performance than the pure TiO2, and when the molar ratio of (NH4)3PO4/Ti(OC4H9)4 = 1.0%, the sample displays the highest photocatalytic activity among all these (NH4)3PO4 modified TiO2 photocatalysts.