For the first time, nitrogen-doped TiO₂ was successfully synthesized by a novel single-step flame aerosol method. Our XPS and EDX results illustrate that the nitrogen was effectively doped into the crystal lattice of TiO₂ in our as-synthesized N-TiO₂ catalysts predominantly in the form of interstitial nitrogen (Ti−O−N) rather than substitutional nitrogen (Ti−N). The shift of the (101) plane anatase diffraction peaks to lower angles in our N-doped TiO₂ catalysts compared to pristine TiO₂ revealed the distortion and strain in the crystal lattice instigated by the incorporation of the nitrogen atoms. The growth or expansion of crystal lattice can be attributed to the larger atomic radius of respective nitrogen atoms (r = 1.71 Å) compared to oxygen (r = 1.40 Å). Our single-step rapid aerosol synthesis method directs the nitrogen atoms mainly occupy interstitial positions in TiO₂ lattice. This occurrence narrows the band gap of TiO₂ (from 3.12 to ~2.51 eV) in our N-doped TiO₂. The lowering of band-gap energy for our flame-made N-doped TiO₂ materials indicates that the nitrogen doping in TiO₂ by aerosol method is highly effective in achieving a red-shift on adsorption to potentially make use of the energy of visible light. The presence of high amount interstitial nitrogen would modify the band structure and suppress the recombination efficiency of the photogenerated electron–hole pairs, resulting in enriched photocatalytic ability of TiO₂ under solar environment or visible irradiation. The incorporation of nitrogen atoms into the lattice structure of TiO₂ modifies the electronic band structure of titania, which leads to a new mid-gap energy state N 2p band formed above O 2p valance band. The photocatalytic degradation of phenol as a probe reaction was used to evaluate the photocatalytic properties of the as-synthesized N-doped materials under visible light.

首次通过新颖的单步火焰气溶胶法成功合成了氮掺杂的TiO ₂。我们的XPS和EDX结果表明，在我们合成的N-TiO ₂催化剂中，氮有效地掺入了TiO _2的晶格中，主要以间隙氮（Ti-O-N）的形式而不是替代氮（Ti- N）。与原始TiO ₂相比，我们的N掺杂TiO ₂催化剂中（101）平面锐钛矿衍射峰向较低角度的移动揭示了由于氮原子的掺入而引起的晶格畸变和应变。晶格的生长或膨胀可归因于各个氮原子（r  = 1.71Å）比氧（r  = 1.40Å）更大的原子半径。我们的单步快速气溶胶合成方法指导氮原子主要占据TiO ₂晶格中的间隙位置。在我们的N掺杂TiO _2中，这种现象使TiO ₂的带隙变窄（从3.12到〜2.51 eV）。带隙能量的我们的火焰制N掺杂的TiO降低₂材料表明，在二氧化钛中的氮的掺杂₂气溶胶法制备的红移非常有效地实现了吸附的红移，从而潜在地利用了可见光的能量。大量间隙氮的存在会改变能带结构并抑制光生电子-空穴对的复合效率，从而导致TiO ₂在太阳环境或可见光照射下的光催化能力增强。氮原子掺入TiO ₂的晶格结构会改变二氧化钛的电子能带结构，从而导致在O 2 p上方形成新的中带能态N 2 p能带价带。苯酚的光催化降解作为探针反应被用来评估可见光下合成的N掺杂材料的光催化性能。