Introducing oxygen vacancies (Vo) into TiO₂ photocatalyst has been considered an effective strategy for improving co-catalyst-free solar photocatalytic activity. However, the methods used to synthesize it require high pressure/temperature and/or hazardous/costly reagents. Here we propose Vo introduction, concomitant with N-doping in TiO₂, as an alternative strategy for achieving efficient co-catalyst-free solar photocatalytic activity under less extreme conditions. After calcination at 450 °C of mesoporous spherical assemblies of a layered titanate nanosheet containing N,N-dimethylformamide as its synthesis solvent in the structure, we successfully synthesized mesoporous spherical assemblies of nanosheets composed of anatase TiO₂ nanoparticles with Vo mediated by N doping. This material exhibits good co-catalyst-free solar photocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution via water splitting under irradiation with simulated solar light, which is considerably higher than that of typical co-catalyst-free defective TiO₂ materials. We discuss the possible role of the introduced Vo in facilitating charge separation and raising photocatalytic efficiency.

将氧空位（Vo）引入TiO ₂光催化剂被认为是提高无助催化剂的太阳能光催化活性的有效策略。然而，用于合成它的方法需要高压/高温和/或危险/昂贵的试剂。在这里，我们提出与在TiO _2中进行N掺杂相结合的Vo引入，作为在不太极端的条件下实现高效无助催化剂的太阳能光催化活性的替代策略。在结构中以N，N-二甲基甲酰胺为合成溶剂的层状钛酸酯纳米片的介孔球形组件在450°C下煅烧后，我们成功合成了由锐钛矿型TiO ₂组成的纳米片的介孔球形组件N掺杂介导的具有Vo的纳米粒子。该材料对模拟太阳光照射下的水分解产生的氢析出氢具有良好的无助催化剂的光催化活性，这比典型的无助催化剂的有缺陷的TiO ₂材料要高得多。我们讨论了引入的Vo在促进电荷分离和提高光催化效率方面的可能作用。