Porous carbon-doped TiO2 on TiC nanostructures for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production under visible light.

Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) has been widely investigated as a photocatalyst material because of its stability and hypotoxicity. However, the photocatalytic activity of TiO 2 is suppressed by the large band gap and the high recombination rate of the charge carrier, which leads to confined application. Moreover, how to improve photocatalytic H 2 production without any co-catalyst remains a big challenge. Here, we report a conceptual strategy in a core–shell nanostructure of simultaneously reducing the band gap and the charge carrier recombination rate by introducing a carbon-doped porous TiO 2 layer onto a metallic TiC nanostructure using a facile in situ thermal growth method. TiC@C-TiO 2 core–shell nanostructure materials have higher photocatalytic activity in methanol aqueous solution than those of pure P25 and carbon-doped TiO 2 , which results from enhanced visible light absorption, drastic charge transfer, and the large surface area. Notably, the novel core–shell nanostructures still exhibit excellent photocatalytic H 2 production without Pt co-catalyst. The results demonstrate that TiC is an ideal support for TiO 2 photocatalysts, and this novel core–shell nanostructure can significantly shift the position of the band edge of the obtained material. This study presents a design principle for photocatalytic materials as highly efficient visible light photocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]