Visible light induced photoreduction of water by N-doped mesoporous titania

N-doped mesoporous titania was synthesized by templating method. Three different types of photocatalysts were synthesized by varying chitosan to titania compositions and designated as N-doped mesoporous titania (1:1), (1:2) and (1:3). These synthesized photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, BET-SA, UV-DRS, SEM-EDX and XPS. This photocatalyst is active in visible range with band gap energy of 2.65 eV. Formation of Ti–N bond reveals the decrease in the band gap of TiO2. The synthesized photocatalysts were screened initially for their photocatalytic activity using water splitting reaction. The maximum hydrogen yield of 2654.57 μmol/h/g of photocatalyst was obtained for N-doped mesoporous titania (1:2). This yield is 16 times higher as compared to the bench mark material Degussa P-25 (161 μmol/h/g of photocatalyst). The best performing photocatalyst N-doped mesoporous titania (1:2) was investigated in detail to study the influence of various operating parameters. Reuse and recycle study results in steady hydrogen yield of 9605.56 μmoles for 30 h.