Toward enhancement of TiO2 surface defect sites related to photocatalytic activity via facile nitrogen doping strategy

This study examined the catalytic activities of three distinct N–Pd@TiO 2 nanoparticles, post-annealed (at 700, 800, and 900 °C) after fabrication on silicon substrates. Systematically, HRPES and SPEM indicated that nitrogen was predominantly doped around PdO nanostructure. Particularly, we prove that photocatalytic activity in effective nitrogen doped surface area is far higher than in undoped area of Pd@TiO 2 nanoparticles by measuring for oxidation reaction of benzenethiol, thioacetic acid, and thiobenzoic acid. Besides to the band gap narrowing, nitrogen doping leads to generate Ti 3 + species or oxygen vacancies site of the surface, which leads to enhance the activity of surface photocatalysis.