C-doped mesoporous anatase TiO2 comprising 10nm crystallites

We report a C-doped mesoporous anatase TiO2 with high surface area synthesized using multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) mat as a "rigid" template and carbon doping source. The characterization by SEM, HRTEM, X-ray diffraction and nitrogen adsorption revealed that TiO2 samples have a porous structure which are figuratively a inverse copy of MWCNT network and pore walls are formed by interconnected TiO2 nanoparticles with average diameter of ∼10nm. We found that annealing temperatures from 400 to 1000°C before MWCNT template removal had very limited effect on particle size (∼10nm), surface area (112-129m(2)/g) and total pore volume (0.74-0.85m(2)/g) of the samples through a significantly delayed phase transition from anatase to rutile started at 800°C, resulting in only ∼9.1% conversion at 1000°C. The pore size distribution is in mesopore range from 6 to 60nm peaked at ∼24nm. XPS analysis showed a relatively strong C1s peak at 288.4eV, indicating C doping at Ti sites, which is responsible for red shift of adsorption edge of UV-vis spectra and photocatalytic activity in visible-light region.