Carbon coated nitrogen doped P25 for the photocatalytic removal of organic pollutants under solar and low energy visible light irradiations

•Carbon coated nitrogen doped P25 was prepared via urea as carbon and nitrogen precursor.•Beside doped N, thin graphitic C coating of 2.04 nm observed on P25 particles.•Reduced Eg on modified photocatalysts improved the photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation.•Enhanced photocatalytic activity was due to low recombination of e− and h+.•Stable photocatalytic efficiency over extended recycled applications.

The commercially available TiO2 Degussa P25 was modified using a simple technique to produce a visible light active carbon (C) coated and nitrogen (N) doped P25. The modified photocatalyst was prepared by mechanical mixing of P25 powder with various amount of urea and followed by thermal heating under semi-closed reactor at different temperatures. The results showed that a layer of carbon graphite was deposited on the surface of P25 and N atoms were incorporated into the lattice of the nano-scaled photocatalyst. It was observed that the UV–Vis spectra of the modified photocatalyst exhibited red shift to the visible region as compared to that of the pristine P25, implying the decreased of band gap energy for the modified photocatalyst. Moreover, the modified photocatalyst was found to yield efficient photocatalytic degradations of the RR4, MB and phenol pollutants under visible light and solar light irradiations.

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