Facile Fabrication of Boron-Doped Titania Nanopowders by Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Synthesis Route and its Photocatalytic Activity

The Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Synthesis (APCVS) route is a process that can be used for the synthesis of doped-nanocrystalline powders with very small crystallite sizes having a narrow particle size distribution and high purity. In this study, APCVS technique was used to prepare boron-doped titania nanopowders. The effects of temperature, borate flow rate and water flow rate on the amount of doped boron were studied. The resultant powders were characterized by inductively coupled plasma (ICP), X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption technique (BET), UV-visible DRS spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The optimum boron precursor flow rate was 80 sccm. The highest amount of doped boron was attained when water flow rate was 900 sccm. In comparison to the pristine TiO2, the boron-doped TiO2 nanoparticles showed blue-shift in band-gap energy of the samples.