Facile route for porous N,S co-doped TiO2 nanoparticles for visible light-driven photocatalysis

Herein, porous N,S co-doped TiO2 nanoparticle (N,S-TiO2) with the high specific surface area were successfully obtained by a simple oil bath reaction and annealing post-treatment. Especially, abundant nitrogen and sulphur elements were co-doped into the resulted TiO2 nanoparticles, which greatly improved the visible light absorption ability of the material. The obtained products were characterised by scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy , ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. In addition, the obtained N,S-TiO2 exhibited superior tetracycline photocatalytic degradation activity, which can reach 84.9% within 60 min under irradiation of visible light and preserved excellent stability even after five recycles. Furthermore, the possible formation process of N,S-TiO2 was discussed. In brief, the obtained N,S-TiO2 can be used as a potential candidate for visible light-driven photocatalysis.