Issue 123, 2015

Polymorphic phase study on nitrogen-doped TiO2 nanoparticles: effect on oxygen site occupancy, dye sensitized solar cells efficiency and hydrogen production

Abstract

In this work we show that phase formation and oxygen substitution can be controlled by the source of nitrogen used during the synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles. By performing a thorough study on the structure of the nanoparticles, the use of NH4+ or NO3 was found to influence not only the N-doping level but also the formation of the polymorphic phase. Structural and microstructural refinement obtained by XRD pattern and data processing performed by the Rietveld refinement revealed that TiO2 obtained with HNO3 presents ca. 98% of anatase and ca. 2% for rutile. Meanwhile TiO2 nanoparticles synthesized with NH4F and NH4Cl presents a single anatase phase with ca. 7.0% and 4.4% of nitrogen substitutional oxygen sites, respectively. The local structure of N-doped TiO2 around the Ti atoms was investigated by X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The XANES spectra show that N-doped TiO2 possesses a characteristic pre-edge of a single anatase structure. The coordination number decreased and the shrinking Ti–O bond distances are due to the N-doping in the TiO2 structure. The most efficient dye sensitized solar cell and the higher hydrogen production was obtained from the TiO2/NH4Cl, which was obtained as a single anatase phase with intermediary concentration of N substitutional oxygen sites.

Graphical abstract: Polymorphic phase study on nitrogen-doped TiO2 nanoparticles: effect on oxygen site occupancy, dye sensitized solar cells efficiency and hydrogen production

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
25 Aug 2015
Accepted
12 Nov 2015
First published
16 Nov 2015

RSC Adv., 2015,5, 101276-101286

Author version available

Polymorphic phase study on nitrogen-doped TiO2 nanoparticles: effect on oxygen site occupancy, dye sensitized solar cells efficiency and hydrogen production

E. C. Kohlrausch, M. J. M. Zapata, R. V. Gonçalves, S. Khan, M. D. O. Vaz, J. Dupont, S. R. Teixeira and M. J. Leite Santos, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 101276 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA17225J

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