Original Article |
2008, Vol.30, No.2, pp. 201-206
Sulfur doping and its effect on TiO2 photoactivity
Rungnapa Tongpool and Kongthip Setwong
pp. 201 - 206
Abstract
Sulfur-doped TiO2 (S-TiO2) was prepared by heat treating thiourea with three types of TiO2, including commercial P25, C02 and precipitated TiO2 (pTiO2). High S content (1.7 %) in S-doped pTiO2 (S-pTiO2) was achieved using relatively low amount of S precursor (S:Ti atomic ratio = 6%). Incorporation of S in TiO2 structure was influenced by polarity of an individual host and sulfur solution. Water can be used to prepare S-doped P25 (S-P25) but ethanol was suitable to prepare S-doped C02 (S-C02). Hydrophilicity of TiO2 and degraded solution played important role in photocatalytic activity. The doping of S either increased or decreased the photocatalytic activity of TiO2, depending on the total effects arisen after doping, including the increase of surface area, the extension of the absorption range, the decrease of hole mobility and the blocking of the active sites by the unknown coating layers on the S-doped particles. In this work, S doping improved only the photocatalytic activity of C02 under the sunlight but lessened the activity of P25 and had no effect on pTiO2 .