Photonic, and photocatalytic behavior of TiO2 mediated by Fe, CO, Ni, N doping and co-doping

Fe, Co, Ni, or N addition could modulate the photonic and catalytic responses of TiO2 for photocatalysts applications. Their morphologies, structures, compositions and photocatalytic performance in the degradation of methylene blue were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV–vis absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results showed that dopants affect the electronic transition energies by changing the optical band gap and the impurity absorption peaks of the specimens. Especially, co-doping enhances the visible-light photocatalytic activity of TiO2 by 4–10 times that of pure TiO2, and the Co and N co-doping derives 10-fold photocatalytic activity.