Effects of carbon doping on TiO2 for enhanced visible light-driven NO sensing performance
Cheol Hwan Kwak, Ui-Su Im, Sang Wan Seo, Min Il Kim, Yun Suk Huh, Ji Sun Im
Abstract
Carbon doped TiO2 (C-TiO2) was successfully synthesized via a novel method using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to enhance visible-light photocatalytic activity. In addition, the effect of C doping of TiO2 on the sensitivity of NO gas detection with visible light was studied. The investigation of the NO gas sensing performance shows C-TiO2 enhanced the visible-light driven photocatalytic activity. It is shown that the visible-light driven photocatalytic activity of C-TiO2 originated from the decrease in the band gap energy by C doping. The band gap energy of C-TiO2 was 2.82 eV, which corresponds to the energy of photons with 440 nm light. It is thus demonstrated that the use of PVA provides a straightforward approach to synthesize C-TiO2 for NO gas detection using visible light.