《On the origin of visible light activity in carbon-modified titania》.pdf

View Online / Journal Homepage / Table of Contents for this issue PAPER /pps | Photochemical Photobiological Sciences On the origin of visible light activity in carbon-modified titania Przemysław Zabek, Joachim Eberl and Horst Kisch* ˛ Received 25th July 2008, Accepted 8th December 2008 First published as an Advance Article on the web 14th January 2009 DOI: 10.1039/b812798k Characterization of a commercial carbon-modified titania visible light photocatalyst (VLP) reveals a quasi-Fermi level of -0.50 V at pH 7 and characteristic C1s binding energies of 284.8 eV and 286.3 eV as measured by XPS. Treatment with sodium hydroxide affords a soluble brown extract SENSex exhibiting in the IR spectrum intense peaks at 1420 cm- 1 and 1580 cm- 1 , tentatively assigned to an K 8 arylcarboxylate group. Both the residue and the solution SENSex do not induce significant visible light 9 7 2 mineralization of 4-chlorophenol. However, after heating them together in suspension, followed by 1 8 ◦ B calcination at 200 C the resulting powder VLPreas exhibits the same quasi-Fermi level and C1s binding / 9 3 energies as the original VLP. Furthermore, within experimental error its visible light activity is identical 1 0 1 1. with that of VLP. These results clearly indicate that, at least for VLP but probably also for other 0 0 2 1 : r i “carbon-doped” titania materials, an aromatic carbon compound and not substitutional or interstitial e o b d m | carbon is the origin of