Highly distorted mesoporous S/C/Ti3+ doped black TiO2 for simultaneous visible light degradation of multiple dyes

Abstract

Rapid industrial growth has led to the empowerment of the standard of living and economy. However, society has been seriously agonized by lack of waste management. Degradation of dyes into simple molecules is recognized as an urgent solution for the current issue. In this direction, we have developed sulfur, carbon and Ti³⁺ co-doped black TiO₂ (S–B-TiO₂) nanoparticles as an advanced photocatalyst for mixed dye degradation. As a result, the band gap energy of TiO₂ was cut down to 2.53 eV from 3.2 eV making it a visible light pro-active photocatalyst. In this report, rose bengal (RB) and methylene blue (MB) were mixed and simultaneously photo-degraded using S–B-TiO₂ nanoparticles. Within a short period of time, simultaneous photo-degradation of RB and MB was achieved as high as 90 and 96%, respectively. Furthermore, various studies including into the effect of catalyst dosage, dye concentration and pH of the solution were extensively performed. In addition, scavenger experiments were also carried out to infer the degradation mechanism.