Extremely fast dark adsorption rate of carbon and nitrogen co-doped TiO2 prepared by a relatively fast, facile and low-cost microwave method

A facile and low-cost microwave method was used to prepare C and N co-doped TiO 2 in just 8 min. The prepared samples were thoroughly characterized and were found to have favourable features such as surface adsorption of pollutants and photocatalysis. The rapid decomposition of CH 5 N 3 HCl under microwave irradiation led to mesopores and surface roughness in the as-prepared particles, resulting in large surface adsorption of pollutant and good photodegradation. The best sample is the one with the ratio of TiO 2 /CH 2 N 3 HCl at 3:1, which adsorbed 86.3 % of a methylene orange (MO) solution (20 mg L −1 ) in 10 min.