In-Situ Nitrogen Doping of the TiO₂ Photocatalyst Deposited by PEALD for Visible Light Activity

In this paper, an N-doped titanium oxide (TiO₂) photocatalyst is deposited by a plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) system through the in-situ doping method. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicates that substitutional nitrogen atoms (∼395.9 eV) with 1 atom% are effectively doped into TiO₂ films. UV-VIS spectrometry shows that the in-situ nitrogen doping method indeed enhances the visible-activity of TiO₂ films in the 425–550 nm range, and the results of the performance tests of the N-doped TiO₂ films also imply that the photocatalysis activity is improved by in-situ doping. The in-situ doping mechanism of the N-doped TiO₂ film is suggested according to the XPS results and the typical atomic layer deposition process