Highly photoactive titania nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) have attracted great interest due to their potential use in many different applications. However, the large intrinsic band gap of TiO2 (3.2 eV) remains a major obstacle that prevents its use in more practical visible light-activated photocatalytic applications. Among the strategies adapted to overcome this limitation, the introduction of non-metal dopants (N and C, respectively called N-TiO2 and C-TiO2) to the TiO2 nanostructure enables the narrowing of the band gap to facilitate activation with visible light. In our study, we have investigated the photoactivity of non-metal doped TiO2 NPs and the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation by N-TiO2 and C-TiO2 nanoparticles for potential antimicrobial applications. Even though the photocatalytic activity of N-doped and C-doped TiO2 NPs have already been heavily studied, a systematic investigation of the materials’ ROS generation capability with changes in synthetic approaches has not yet been well explored. In our study, we investigated the effect of the synthetic conditions on the NP structure of N- and C-doped TiO2 and its corresponding influence on the ROS generation for visible light-driven antimicrobial applications.

Engineering the titania nanostructure to optimize visible light-driven antimicrobial properties

256th National Meeting (2018)

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