Synthesis of carbon doped titanium dioxide (tio2) particles via electrospraying technique/ Siti Umairah Halimi

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) was one of the potential semiconductor material that used as potent adsorbents, catalysts for degradation of pollutants and also removals or organic and inorganics materials. The successful exploitation of TiO2 required development of methods to improve the physical and chemical properties. This study focus on production of fine size carbon doped TiO2 particles under three objectives, produced small size Cdoped TiO2 particles using electrospray technique, characterized the chemical and physical properties of produced particles and evaluate the performance of produced particles in degradation of phenol under visible light. Hydrolysis of titanium isopropoxide, doping with carbon element and electrospray technique was used to produce C-doped TiO2. The characterization and analysis performed in this study revealed that smallest C-doped TiO2 droplets produced from electrospray technique was 147 nm with narrow size distribution. Mechanism of droplet fission during electrospraying leads to formation of small and narrow distribution of droplets size produced. Doping the TiO2 with carbon element improved its chemical properties by successfully lowered the band gap energy down to 2.46 eV and shift its optical response toward visible light active. The presence of O-H bond in C-doped TiO2 contributed to the
efficiency of phenol degradation. The efficiency of phenol degradation under visible light
irradiation increased by using C-doped TiO2 as photo-catalyst for degradation process.
The improved chemical and physical properties of the produced C-doped TiO2 were able
to overcome the drawbacks of TiO2 and used effectively in degradation of pollutant.