Higher visible photocatalytic activities of nitrogen doped In2TiO5 sensitized by carbon nitride

Abstract

N-doped In(2)TiO(5) modified by carbon nitride (CN) composite (NICN) has been prepared by the pyrogenation of the mixture of urea and In(2)TiO(5) through a polymerizable complex (PC) method. The powder samples were characterized by XRD, FESEM, TEM, UV-vis, and XPS. It is shown by XRD that the precursor sintered at 1000°C is pure and nitrogen dopant does not change the crystal structure of In(2)TiO(5). FESEM and TEM reveal a hole-like morphology of the prepared NICN. With the increase of nitrogen content, the light absorption onset of In(2)TiO(5) shifts from 410 nm to 450 nm, revealing significant narrowing of the band gap. XPS results suggest that only 2.2% of the nitrogen atoms were doped into In(2)TiO(5) through the urea pyrogenation method. Furthermore, the decomposition of Rhodamine B (Rh-B) under visible light reveals that Rh-B can be degraded completely within 20 min and recycling experiments indicate NICN has stable structure and durable photocatalytic activity, suggesting a promising utilization of such photocatalyst under visible light. Finally, an innovative mechanism of N-doped In(2)TiO(5) sensitized by carbon nitride polymer is proposed.