Commercial and home-made nitrogen modified titanias. A short reflection about the advantageous/disadvantageous properties of nitrogen doping in the frame of their applicability

As visible light driven photocatalysis became more and more intensively studied, the first commercial products showed up on the market. Simultaneously controversial results appeared in the literature generating an intensive debate regarding the advantages and draw-backs of nitrogen doping of titania. Hence, the present work focuses on two commercially available and four sol–gel made nitrogen modified titania powders regarding their structure and activity. It is demonstrated that the interstitial nitrogen entities “leak out” from the catalysts if the material is irradiated with UV light, while substitutional nitrogen remains stable. However, the latter one was proven to be less important in the photocatalytic point of view. These observations were also valid in the case of sol–gel made nitrogen modified titanias. Furthermore, the results obtained after applying different spectroscopic methods (IR, XPS and DRS) shown that the yellow color of the titanias, does not necessary mean that a successful doping is achieved.