Photocatalytic activity of visible light active carbon modified (CM)-n-TiO2 nanoparticles

The present research focused on wet process synthesis of carbon modified (CM)-n-TiO 2 nanoparticles and their photocatalytic activity. The carbon-modified (CM) TiO 2 was synthesized by hydrolysis of TiCl 4 in the presence of tetrabutylammonium hydroxide or in the presence of glucose and sodium hydroxide. UV-Vis and x-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy dispersed x-ray (EDX) were used to characterize the resulting photocatalysts. It was found that the CM-n-TiO 2 nanoparticles synthesized by extended aging and subsequent calcinations of n-TiO 2 in the presence of tetrabutylammonium hydroxide or glucose absorb well into the visible to near infrared region up to 800 nm and exhibited enhanced visible light catalytic activity on the degradation of 4-chlorophenol. CM-n-TiO 2 synthesized using glucose as the carbon source generated ∼ 13 fold increase in the initial rate of photodegradation of 4-chlorophenol compared to regular n-TiO 2 whereas it increased only ∼ 8 fold when tetrabutylammonium hydroxide was used as the carbon source.