Controllable synthesis of mesoporous photocatalysts is of great interest for the photocatalytic remediation of organic pollutants from wastewater by sunlight. In this work, we have developed a new photocatalyst with nitrogen-doped carbon (NC) and mesoporous TiO₂ (mTiO₂) interpenetrating hetero-structure by a sol–gel process combined with an in situ carbonization strategy. The synthesized nanospheres possess a uniform particle size (~ 60 nm), high surface area (~ 108 m²/g), and large pore diameter (~ 2.1 nm). Most importantly, the nanospheres consist of ultrasmall TiO₂ nanocrystals (~ 8.2 nm), which are uniformly coated by a thin layer of N-doped carbon. Significantly, the resultant NC/mTiO₂ composite nanospheres exhibit a broad light absorption in the range of 200–2000 nm (entire wavelength). When serving as a photocatalyst for organic pollutants degradation, high performance was obtained. Accordingly, the resultant NC/mTiO₂ composite nanospheres performed in an excellent manner in the photodegradation of methyl orange, and the total removal efficiency was up to 97.7%, much better than that of commercial P25 (19.8%). Furthermore, the nanocomposite also effectively photodegraded other organic pollutants such as methylene blue (dyestuff) and phenol, respectively. Therefore, the resultant NC/mTiO₂ nanocomposites have potential applications in environmental cleanup.

介孔光催化剂的可控合成对于光催化废水中有机污染物的光催化修复具有重要意义。在这项工作中，我们开发了一种新的光催化剂，其中掺氮碳（NC）和中孔TiO ₂（mTiO ₂）通过溶胶-凝胶工艺与原位碳化策略相结合而渗透到异质结构中。合成的纳米球具有均匀的粒径（〜60 nm），高表面积（〜108 m ² / g）和大孔径（〜2.1 nm）。最重要的是，纳米球由超小TiO ₂纳米晶体（约8.2 nm）组成，它们被一层薄薄的N掺杂碳均匀地覆盖。明显地，所得的NC / mTiO ₂复合纳米球在200-2000 nm（整个波长）范围内显示出广泛的光吸收。当用作用于有机污染物降解的光催化剂时，获得了高性能。因此，所得的NC / mTiO ₂复合纳米球在甲基橙的光降解中表现优异，总去除效率高达97.7％，远优于商品P25（19.8％）。此外，该纳米复合材料还分别有效地光降解了其他有机污染物，例如亚甲基蓝（染料）和苯酚。因此，所得的NC / mTiO ₂纳米复合材料在环境净化中具有潜在的应用。