We report a novel method to synthesize titanium nitride (TiN) nanoparticles encapsulated within the shell of core/shell silica microspheres with average diameter of 500 nm. TiO2-coated microspheres were first synthesized by TiO2 coating of porous silica microspheres using a sol-gel technique, which were then annealed under ammonia at 700�C. This annealing resulted in the formation of TiN nanoparticles inside the silica shell. The size of TiN particle was sensitive to amount of titanium precursor, annealing temperature, and annealing time. The resulting microsphere with green color, SiO2@TiN, was fully characterized by TEM, SEM, photoluminescence, X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms and UV-visible spectroscopy. Considerable activity in photocatalytic production of H2 from water under visible light was observed in SiO2@TiN. The H2 production is strongly dependent on the size of TiN particles encapsulated in porous shell. TiN particles larger than 20 nm did not show any noticeable photocatalytic activity under visible light.

Encapsulated titanium nitride nanoparticles for photocatalytic activity under visible light

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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