Remarkable enhancement of visible light driven photocatalytic performance of TiO2 by simultaneously doping with C, N, and S

TiO2 modified with C, N and S were produced by hydrothermal treatment and sol-gel method using thiourea as the precursor. The characteristic of the materials were examined by means of XPS, XRD, UV-VIS, SEM, EDX, and FT-IR. The results showed that C, N and S were successfully doped into TiO2 lattice, leading to a decline in recombination rate of electrons/holes, and a shift of absorption edge of TiO2 to visible light region. The photocatalytic performance of as synthesized catalysts were evaluated via the degradation of rhodamine B under visible light irradiation. N,C,S-TiO2 demonstrated the highest photocatalytic efficiency and a perspective recyclable potential. The optimal photocatalyst dose was 1.8 g/L, and the best RhB initial concentration was 20 mg/ L. At the optimal conditions, almost 100% of RhB were removed after 1.5 h. The photodegradation of RhB followed the seudo first-order kinetics, with the maximum rate constant of 0.0410 min(-1).

Automated summary

TiO2 modified with C, N and S using thiourea as the precursor showed improved photocatalytic efficiency in degrading rhodamine B under visible light irradiation. The optimal photocatalyst dose was 1.8 g/L, with the best initial RhB concentration at 20 mg/L, achieving nearly 100% degradation within 1.5 hours.