Natural sunlight driven highly efficient photocatalysis for simultaneous degradation of rhodamine B and methyl orange using I/C codoped TiO2 photocatalyst

[Display omitted] •The interstitial carbon and substitutional iodine codoped TiO2 was synthesized.•The RhB and MO degradation performance was promoted by the C and I co-doping.•The photocatalysis for mixed degradation was accomplished under natural light.•The C and I co-doping facilitated the OH formation from H2O2. Increasing the efficiency of dye degradation is a critical issue for the application for photocatalysis. It is one of the greatest challenges to enhance the utilization of photo generated carriers in semiconductor, especially for sunlight irradiation. In this study, I/C-codoped TiO2 was synthesized by a simple solvothermal-calcination method. The codoping interstitial carbon and substitutional iodine not only widened the light absorption range of the TiO2 photocatalysts, but also enhanced the separation of photo-induced carriers. The photocatalytic activities of RhB and MO degradation over the 4-I/C-TiO2 photocatalyst could reach 98.2% and 94.2% after 25 min visible light irradiation (λ ≥ 400 nm), respectively. Notably, 4-I/C-TiO2 showed good activity for MO and RhB mixed degradation and could also accomplish the photocatalytic degradation in the above mixed system under natural sunlight irradiation. According to the dark catalytic experiment, I/C-codoping could effectively accelerate the formation of hydroxyl radicals from the generated H2O2, which was formed for the enhanced photocatalytic activity of dye degradation. The gained knowledge may provide some insights into the photocatalytic degradation over the codoped TiO2 catalyst.