Synthesis, characterization and study of the photocatalytic activity of new boron and nitrogen doped TiO2 samples.

Nowadays the preservation of natural resources pushes towards the employment of renewable and sustainable energy sources, being the solar light a primary one for a wide number of applications. In particular, in the field of water waste treatment photocatalytic processes received great attention due to their cheapness, environmental compatibility and optimal performances. in order to maximize the process yield despite the general low selectivity of the photocatalyst, operational parameters need to be accurately optimized. Because of this reason in the present contribution either new boron and/or nitrogen doped TiO2-based systems and their employment in the methyl red removal from aqueous solutions are carefully studied. Boron and/or nitrogen doped titania samples were obtained by coprecipitation and characterized by XRD, UV-Vis spectroscopy and SEM microscopy. Their catalytic activity in the methyl red photodegradation in different conditions was evaluated as a function of working pH and counter-ions. The comparison with commercial Degussa P25 demonstrates the positive influence of boron in photo-activated reactions and the great importance of the operational parameters with respect to the simple methyl red bleaching rather than the overall pollutant mineralization