A handy way for forming N-doped TiO₂/carbon from pectin and d,l-serine hydrazide hydrochloride

N-doped TiO₂/carbon composites (N-TiPC) have shown excellent photodegradation performances to the organic contaminants but are limited by the multistage preparation (i.e., preparation of porous carbon, preparation of N-doped TiO₂, and loading of N-doped TiO₂ on porous carbon). Here, we develop a handy way by combining the Pickering emulsion-gel template route and chelation reaction of polysaccharides. The N-TiPC is obtained by calcinating pectin/Dl-serine hydrazide hydrochloride (SHH)-Ti⁴⁺ chelate and is further described by modern characterization techniques. The results show that the N atom is successfully doped into the TiO₂ lattice, and the bandgap value of N-TiPC is reduced to 2.3 eV. Moreover, the particle size of N-TiPC remains about 10 nm. The configurations of the composites are simulated using DFT calculation. The photocatalytic experiments show that N-TiPC has a high removal efficiency for methylene blue (MB) and oxytetracycline hydrochloride (OTC-HCL). The removal ratios of MB (20 mg/L, 50 mL) and OTC-HCL (30 mg/L, 50 mL) are 99.41 % and 78.29 %, respectively. The cyclic experiments show that the photocatalyst has good stability. Overall, this study provides a handy way to form N-TiPC with enhanced photodegradation performances. It can also be promoted to other macromolecules such as cellulose and its derivatives, sodium alginate, chitosan, lignin, etc.