Synthesis and Characterization of Fe-N-S-tri-Doped TiO2 Photocatalyst and Its Enhanced Visible Light Photocatalytic Activity

Fe-N-S-tri-doped TiO2 photocatalysts were synthesized by one step in the presence of ammonium ferrous sulfate. The resulting materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflection spectrum (UV-Vis DRS). XPS analysis indicated that Fe (III) and S6+ were incorporated into the lattice of TiO2 through substituting titanium atoms, and N might coexist in the forms of substitutional N (O-Ti-N) and interstitial N (Ti-O-N) in tridoped TiO2. XRD results showed that tri-doping with Fe, N, and S elements could effectively retard the phase transformation of TiO2 from anatase to rutile and growth of crystallite size. DRS results revealed that the light absorbance edge of TiO2 in visible region was greatly improved by tri-doping with Fe, N, and S elements. Further, the photocatalytic activity of the as-synthesized samples was evaluated by the degradation of phenol under visible light irradiation. It was found that Fe-N-S-tri-doped TiO2 catalyst exhibited higher visible light photocatalytic activity than that of pure TiO2 and P25 TiO2, which was mainly attributed to the small crystallite size, intense light absorbance in visible region, and narrow bandgap energy.