Titanium-based oxides are abundant, chemically stable, non-toxic, and highly versatile materials, with applications ranging from photovoltaics to catalysis. For rutile and anatase phases of Titanium dioxide (TiO2), the bandgap ranges from 3.0-3.2 eV, which are too large to absorb in the visible range (400 nm - 700 nm), resulting in poor photo-catalytic efficiency. Nitrogen doping into TiO2 has been able to narrow its bandgap, forming an absorption tail in the visible-light region. However, TiO2 has limits to which it can be doped, suggesting investigations of the oxygen-deficient Ti203. Using the state-of-the-art Density Functional Theory (DFT) as implemented in the Quantum ESPRESSO package, we report on the structural and electronic properties of corundum-type Ti2N20 (an example TinN2O2n-3 compound with n=2). The most stable sample of the oxynitride (Ti2N2O-P1), has a bandgap of 2.2 eV, which is clearly near the middle of the visible light part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and has no in-gap states, suggesting that they are more efficient visible-light-driven materials for photocatalytic applications compared to TiO2, TiO2: N and Ti2O3.
Using the ab initio FLAPW-GGA method we examine the electronic and magnetic properties of nitrogen-doped non-magnetic sesquioxide La2O3 emphasizing the role of doping sites in the occurrence of d0-magnetism. We predict the magnetization of La2O3 induced by nitrogen impurity in both octahedral and tetrahedral sites of the oxygen sublattice. The most interesting results are that (i) the total magnetic moments (about 1 μB per supercells) are independent of the doping site, whereas (ii) the electronic spectra of these systems differ drastically: La2O3:N with six-fold coordinated nitrogen behaves a…
Electrochemical capacitors with pure electric double layer capacitance are so far largely been limited to carbon materials only. Conventional metal oxides with Faradaic pseudocapacitance substantially suffer from material instability at high temperatures and thus there is a demand for novel metal oxides exhibiting thermally improved high electric double layer capacitance with material stability. In this study, titanium sesquioxide, Ti$_2$O$_3$, a Mott insulator in its metallic state at 300$^o$ C showed an anomalous increase of $\approx$ 560% in the solid-state electrochemical capacitance as co…
Titanium-island formation on graphene as a function of defect density is investigated. When depositing titanium on pristine graphene, titanium atoms cluster and form islands with an average diameter of about 10nm and an average height of a few atomic layers. We show that if defects are introduced in the graphene by ion bombardment, the mobility of the deposited titanium atoms is reduced and the average diameter of the islands decreases to 5nm with monoatomic height. This results in an optimized coverage for hydrogen storage applications since the actual titanium surface available per unit grap…
This study reports on the properties of nitrogen doped titanium dioxide $TiO_2$ thin films considering the application as transparent conducting oxide (TCO). Sets of thin films were prepared by sputtering a titanium target under oxygen atmosphere on a quartz substrate at 400 or 500°C. Films were then doped at the same temperature by 150 eV nitrogen ions. The films were prepared in Anatase phase which was maintained after doping. Up to 30at% nitrogen concentration was obtained at the surface, as determined by in situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Such high nitrogen concentration at th…
Thick anatase films were fabricated on graphite substrates using a method of anodic aqueous electrophoretic-deposition using oxalic acid as a dispersant. Thick films were subsequently fired in air and in nitrogen at a range of temperatures. The morphology and phase composition were assessed and the photocatalytic performance was examined by the inactivation of Escherichia coli in water. It was found that the transformation of anatase to rutile is enhanced by the presence of a graphite substrate through reduction effects. The use of a nitrogen atmosphere allows higher firing temperatures, resul…
The growth rate during reactive high power pulsed magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) of titanium nitride is measured with a temporal resolution of up to 25 us using a rotating shutter concept. According to that concept a 200 um slit is rotated in front of the substrate synchronous with the HIPIMS pulses. Thereby, the growth flux is laterally distributed over the substrate. By measuring the resulting deposition profile with profilometry and with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the temporal variation of the titanium and nitrogen growth flux per pulse is deduced. The analysis reveals that film growt…
We have performed first-principles evolutionary searches for all stable titanium nitrides and have found, in addition to the well-known rocksalt-type TiN, new ground states Ti$_3$N$_2$, Ti$_4$N$_3$, Ti$_6$N$_5$ at atmospheric pressure, and Ti$_2$N and TiN$_2$ at higher pressures. The latest nitrogen-rich structure presents encapsulated N$_2$ dumbbells with a N-N distance of 1.348 Å at 60 GPa and TiN$_2$ is predicted to be mechanically stable (quenchable). Our calculations of the mechanical properties (bulk modulus, shear modulus, Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, and hardness) are in excellent…
The structural and electrical properties of Ti-N films deposited by reactive sputtering depend on their growth parameters, in particular the Ar:N2 gas ratio. We show that the nitrogen percentage changes the crystallographic phase of the film progressively from pure α-Ti, through an α-Ti phase with interstitial nitrogen, to stoichiometric Ti2N, and through a substoichiometric TiNX to stoichiometric TiN. These changes also affect the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, allowing, the superconducting properties to be tailored for specific applications. After decreasing from a Tc of 0.4 K f…
Close inspection of the pre-edge in oxygen near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectra of single step, gas phase synthesized titanium oxynitride photocatalysts with 20 nm particle size reveals an additional eg resonance in the VB that went unnoticed in previous TiO2 anion doping studies. The relative spectral weight of this Ti(3d)-O(2p) hybridized state with respect to and located between the readily established t2g and eg resonances scales qualitatively with the photocatalytic decomposition power, suggesting that this extra resonance bears co-responsibility for the photocatalytic perfor…
We propose a systematic approach to obtain various forms of insulating titanium oxynitrides Ti$_{n}$N$_{2}$O$_{2n-3}$ and we conduct a detailed study on its $n=2$ case, Ti$_{2}$N$_{2}$O. We study the energetics and the electronic structures of Ti$_{2}$N$_{2}$O and compare these results with those of pristine and nitrogen-doped TiO$_{2}$ within the framework of the density-functional theory (DFT) and the GW approximation. We find that Ti$_{2}$N$_{2}$O is semiconducting with the calculated band-gap of 1.81 eV, which is significantly smaller than those of pristine TiO$_{2}$ rutile (3.14 eV) or an…
3D titanium carbonitrides TiCxNy possess excellent physical, chemical, and mechanical properties, attractive for various industrial applications. Most recently, the uncommon nano-sized layers of 2D-like titanium carbonitrides were fabricated from MAX phases. Herein, the structural, electronic properties and stability of these new compounds as well as their hydroxylated derivatives - so-called MXenes Ti3C2-xNx and Ti3C2-xNx(OH)2 are probed by means of SSC-DFTB calculations. The genesis of the properties is discussed in the sequence: binary MXenes Ti3C2 (Ti3N2) -> their hydroxylated forms Ti3C2(…
In the present work, a simple strategy is used to thermally oxidize TiN nanopowder (ca. 20 nm) to an anatase phase of a TiO2:Ti3+:N compound. In contrast to the rutile phase of such a compound this photocatalyst provides photocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution under AM1.5 conditions - this without the use of any noble metal co-catalyst. Moreover the photocatalyst is active and stable over extended periods of time (tested for 4 months). Importantly, to achieve successful conversion to the active anatase polymorph, sufficiently small starting particles of TiN are needed. The key factor fo…
Samples of nitrogen-doped titanium dioxide (anatase, $0.2 \leq N \leq 1.0~wt\%$) prepared by the sol-gel method were investigated using X-band EPR spectroscopy, photoconductivity and photocatalysis measurements. $N\bullet$ and $NO\bullet$ paramagnetic defects in N-TiO2 have been observed; their concentrations and spin-Hamiltonian parameters were calculated. An increase both in the rate of the generation of free charge carriers and in the rate of photocatalysis was found in N-TiO2 in contrast with non-doped titania under visible light. The correlation of the density of the observed radicals wit…
Molybdenum and nitrogen co-doped $TiO_2$ nanotube arrays (TNAs) were prepared by anodizing in association with hydrothermal treatment. As-prepared Mo and N co-doped TNAs were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and ultraviolet-visible light diffuse reflection spectroscopy. Besides, the photocatalytic activity of Mo and N co-doped TNAs for the degradation of methylene blue (denoted as MB) under visible light irradiation was evaluated. It was found that N in co-doped TNAs coexists in the forms of N-Ti-O and N-O-Ti, whi…
Titanium dioxide is one of the most widely investigated oxides. This is due to its broad range of applications, from catalysis to photocatalysis to photovoltaics. Despite this large interest, many of its bulk properties have been sparsely investigated using either experimental techniques or ab initio theory. Further, some of TiO2's most important properties, such as its electronic band gap, the localized character of excitons, and the localized nature of states induced by oxygen vacancies, are still under debate. We present a unified description of the properties of rutile and anatase phases, …
