Abstract
Herein, the effect of an acid pre-treatment over TiO2 reduction was studied to obtain black titania with increased defectives sites. A commercial TiO2 (anatase > 99%; Merck) was pre-treated with aqueous solutions of boric, nitric, phosphoric and sulfuric acids at 353 K. Afterwards, the solids were annealed for 2 h at 773 K under 50 mL min−1 H2 flow. The above materials were analyzed by XRD, FTIR, XPS and UV–Vis to relate the chemical changes induced by the acid pre-treatment with crystalline and optical characteristics and; hence, to the photoactivity. The O/Ti surface ratio nor the energy band gap value of the TiO2 was altered by the pre-treatment using sulfuric acid; therefore, the photocatalytic activity was not modified using this acid. Despite the fact that pre-treatment with boric and phosphoric acid decreased the energy band gap to 2.1 and 2.9; respectively (which is favorable for the absorption of visible light), the incorporation of borate and phosphate species in the surface was detrimental for the photocatalytic process. The O/Ti ratio dropped from 2.0 to 1.5 after the reduction of the sample pretreated with nitric acid. Since more oxygen vacancies are introduced by using nitric acid, the visible-light absorption was increased and the phenol photodegradation was boosted. The modulation of the defective sites allows to engineering the TiO2 band-gap for solar-driven applications.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge Santiago Marrero, Maria C. Goite and Ismael González for XRD, FTIR and XPS measurements, respectively. This project was funded by CDCH-UCV No. PG-03-0788-2013/1. KMF acknowledge CONACYT-México for the postdoctoral scholarship 2019-2020.
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Fuentes, K.M., Venuti, D. & Betancourt, P. Black titania with increased defective sites for phenol photodegradation under visible light. Reac Kinet Mech Cat 131, 423–435 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11144-020-01832-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11144-020-01832-6