| Abstract: |
Current human activities have lead to water and air contamination having damaging effects on human health and potential irreparable impacts on the biosphere. Titanium dioxide (TiO2), as one of the most recognized photocatalysts, allows the decomposition and the removal of waste organic compounds and harmful gases from water and atmosphere. However, its limited efficiency has prompted extensive research to improve its performance and reduce cost. In literature, it has been reported that the substoichiometric form of titania, so-called black TiO2, shows remarkable photocatalytic activity as a result of raising the charge carriers lifetime and also reducing the TiO2 bandgap. In this work, water- and ethanol-based suspension plasma spray depositions were used to produce TiO2 coatings with different degrees of sub-stoichiometric oxidation. The photocatalytic performance was evaluated by monitoring the degradation of methylene blue under visible light. The results indicated that oxygen vacancy positively affected the photocatalytic activity of TiO2-x by introducing some energy levels into the bandgap of titania. Additionally, coatings were characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), thermogravimetry (TGA), UVvisible spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
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