One-step in-situ preparation of N-doped TiO2@C derived from Ti3C2 MXene for enhanced visible-light driven photodegradation

As the most promising environment-friendly photocatalyst, titanium dioxide admittedly has two shortcomings of low sunlight utilization efficiency and poor quantum yield. Nitrogen doping and TiO2 loading on carbon materials can improve the above two problems, respectively. But a facile synthetic method for titanium dioxide composites with stable structure and high visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity is still desired by researchers. Herein we obtained two-dimensional layered nitrogen-doped carbon-supported titanium dioxides (N-TiO2@C) via a one-step in-situ fabrication way from a novel two-dimensional layered transition metal carbide Ti3C2 MXene as carbon skeleton and homologous titanium source. Based on the negatively charged and easily oxidized property of Ti3C2 MXene, it was assembled with nitrogen-containing cationic compound via electrostatic interactions and then in-situ transformed into nitrogen-doped carbon-supported TiO2 in a CO2 atmosphere at 550 °C. The obtained composites of porous 2D layered N-TiO2@C with high stability, outstanding electron transfer performance and excellent visible-light photocatalytic activity exhibits the high efficiency of phenol degradation with the apparent rate constant k of 1.646 × 10−2 min−1. It provides a facile new method for the preparation of visible-light-driven titanium dioxide with excellent catalytic performance, structural stability and good application prospects in the environmental purification.