The solar spectrum contains only 5% UV and this limits the application of TiO2 for solar photocatalytic water treatment. To improve the solar efficiency, doping TiO2 with non-metals has been one of the more promising approaches to yield visible light activity (VLA) although the mechanism is not fully understood. TiO2, N-TiO2 and NF-TiO2films were prepared on conducting substrates and the electrochemical response was analysed under illumination (solar simulated, visible, and monochromatic). There was no marked increase in the visible light photocurrent response following the addition of hole acceptors which could be oxidised by a mid-gap state. The addition of superoxide showed a very small increase in the visible light response possibly due to oxidation yielding singlet oxygen. This work is part of a collaborative project �Degradation Mechanism of Cyanotoxins Using Novel Visible Light-Activated Titania Photocatalysts� funded under the US-Ireland R&D Partnership by DELNI, SFI and NSF [CBET 033317].

Probing the mechanism of visible light photocatalytic activity using photoelectrochemistry

245th National Meeting (2013)

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