A new method to prepare high-surface-area N–TiO2/activated carbon

Abstract A new method, combining impregnation and vapor-hydrolysis, was developed to prepare hybrid photocatalyst: nitrogen doped TiO 2 coated activated carbon (N–TiO 2 /AC). The activated carbon (AC) was impregnated into titanium tetraethoxide/urea/methanol solution, and then the impregnated AC powder was kept in water vapor at 90 °C for 3 h for hydrolysis. Then it was calcinated to fabricate N–TiO 2 /AC. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results showed that the nitrogen doped TiO 2 (N–TiO 2 ) in the as-synthesized hybrid was anatase TiO 2 powder with 10–20 nm in grain size, and the bandgap was about 3.08 eV. Moreover, the hybrid photocatalyst (8 wt.% N–TiO 2 ) had high specific surface area that was up to 1321 m 2 /g. The hybrid photocatalyst is expected to have high photocatalytic performance with visible irradiation.