Low-temperature synthesis of N-TiO2 sol and characterization of N-TiO2 coating on cotton fabrics

To extend the application of N-TiO2 to substrates with low thermal resistance, N-TiO2 sol has been successfully synthesized at low temperature by reflux method and N-TiO2 coating on cotton fabrics has been successfully prepared in a dip-coating process. Several characterization tools, such as X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, were employed to study the phase structures, morphologies, the chemical states and optical properties of the samples. The photocatalytic properties of the prepared products were measured with the degradation of methyl orange at room temperature under visible light irradiation. In comparison with TiO2-cotton, the remarkable enhancement in the visible light photocatalytic performance of the N-TiO2-cotton could be attributed to the existence of N-TiO2 with narrow band gap. The photocatalytic performances of the N-TiO2-cotton were maintained for the cycling experiments, indicating that N-TiO2-cotton could be used as stable and efficient visible-light-induced self-cleaning materials.