Effective nonmetal incorporation in black titania with enhanced solar energy utilization

Nonmetal-doped black titania is achieved in a core-shell structure by a two-step synthesis. The nonmetal dopants in amorphous TiO sub(2-x) shells decrease e-h recombination centers, and more than 6.6 at.% N further improves solar energy absorption from 65% up to 85%. The photocatalytic H sub(2) generation of the N-doped black titania is 15.0 mmol h super(-1) g super(-1) under 100 mW cm super(-2) of full-sunlight and 200 mu mol h super(-1) g super(-1) under 90 mW cm super(-2) of visible-light irradiation, superior to TiO sub(2-x) and reported titania photocatalysis.