Adjusting Nitrogen Doping Level in Titanium Dioxide by Codoping with Tungsten: Properties and Band Structure of the Resulting Materials

Jonathan Z. Bloh, Andrea Folli, Donald E. Macphee*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

For a systematic study of the material, samples of W/N-codoped titania with different concentrations of the dopants were prepared. The physicochemical properties and in particular their band structure were subsequently evaluated experimentally to elucidate the effect of W-doping, N-doping, and W/N-codoping on the band structure of TiO2. For this purpose, a combined approach of optical spectroscopy and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was chosen. The doped samples featured both a reduced band gap and a positively shifted conduction band edge. Both conduction band edge and band gap followed a linear dependence on the nitrogen content. They also demonstrate visible light absorption capability, which is associated with interstitial nitrogen doping. Tungsten doping did not influence the band structure of TiO2 directly. It did, however, facilitate nitrogen uptake and stabilize it at higher temperatures. These higher nitrogen doping levels then in turn reduced the band gap and lowered the conduction band edge. Codoping with tungsten therefore offers an excellent way to precisely adjust the nitrogen content and correspondingly the conduction band position of titanium dioxide.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)21281-21292
Number of pages12
JournalThe Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Volume118
Issue number36
Early online date22 Aug 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Sept 2014

Bibliographical note

The work reported in this paper has been funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) Project Light2Cat (Grant No. 283062, Theme Environment).

Keywords

  • N-doped TIO2
  • electron-paramagnetic-resonance
  • visible-light activity
  • density-functional theory
  • methylene-blue dye
  • photocatalytic activity
  • anatase TIO2
  • photoelectrochemical properties
  • optical-properties
  • thin-films

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