Room Temperature Synthesis of N-doped Urchin-like Rutile TiO2 Nanostructure With Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity Under Sunlight

We report the synthesis of nitrogen-doped urchin-like rutile TiO2 nanostructure at room temperature without further heat treatment. The process was operated through hydrolysis of Ti(OC4H9)4 employing the direct amination of the product. The samples characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectroscopy and Brunauer- Emmett- Teller (BET) for determination of surface area. Photocatalytic activity of the product was evaluated by degradation of Methylene blue under sunlight. This analysis demonstrated that obtained titanium oxide has an urchin- like form with rutile structure and high surface area is due to formation of nanospicules on the surface. N–TiO2 exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity under sunlight due to their high surface area (148 m2 g-1) and the new absorption band in the visible region caused by nitrogen doping.