Mo-N-co-doped mesoporous TiO2 microspheres with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity

•The Mo-N-co-doped mesoporous TiO2 microspheres were synthesized via a solvothermal method and further nitriding treatment.•The properties of TiO2 microspheres can be tuned by Mo-N-co-doping.•Photocatalytic rate is much higher than Pure TiO2 catalyst powder and Mo doped TiO2 microspheres.•The higher activity is attributed to the large BET surface area, narrow band gap and intense light absorbance in visible region.

Mo-N-co-doped mesoporous TiO2 microspheres were synthesized via a solvothermal method, followed by nitriding treatment under ammonia gas flow. The efficiency of the samples was investigated by monitoring the degradation of Rhodamine-B under visible light irradiation. The experimental results revealed that Mo-N-co-doped mesoporous TiO2 microspheres showed better performances than Mo-TiO2 microspheres. It was observed that; 0.1% molar quantity of Mo doped on TiO2 at 500 °C for 2 h under nitriding conditions gave highest photocatalytic activities. The nitridation under ammonia gas of Mo-TiO2 samples created oxygen vacant sites and led to incorporation of substitutional and interstitial Nitrogen. The enhanced visible light photocatalytic activities of Mo-N-co-doped TiO2 photocatalyst was attributed to the large surface areas, narrow band gap and intense light absorbance in visible region. This study may create a promising and eco-friendly method towards synthesis of metal and non-metals co-doped on semiconductor materials to improve their photocatalytic activities and applications.

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