Synthesis and visible light photocatalytic activity of Mo–N codoped TiO₂ nanowires prepared by amorphous titania spheres via hydrothermal process

Abstract

Mo–N codoped TiO₂ nanowires were synthesised through hydrothermal process. The physicochemical features of the nanowires were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. Structural characterisation indicates that the Mo–N codoped TiO₂ nanowires of a high purity with large aspect ratio were very thin. The photocatalytic activities of the nanowires were determined by degradation of methyl blue solution under visible light irradiation. At last, the possible formation mechanism of nanowires has simply been proposed on the basis of the SEM results.

Keywords:

• TiO₂
• Nanowires
• Hydrothermal process
• Mechanism

This research was financially supported by the Doctoral Research Start-up Fund of Shaanxi University of Science and Technology (no. BJ08-01), Special Fund from Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education (no. 09JK352) and the Graduate Innovation Found of Shaanxi University of Science and Technology.