A facile fabrication of nitrogen-doped electrospun In₂O₃ nanofibers with improved visible-light photocatalytic activity

Highlights: • N-doped In₂O₃ nanofibers are facilely fabricated by gaseous ammonia treatment. • Adjusting the annealing temperature leads to different N-doped In₂O₃ nanofibers. • Nitrogen doping was found to be interstitial mode. • N-In₂O₃ exhibited effective charge carrier separation and photocatalytic activity. • The photocatalysts can be easily separated from the reaction system. - Abstract: Semiconductor photocatalysis demonstrates to be an effective approach for eliminating most types of environment contaminants and for producing hydrogen. Herein, a facile synthesis route combining electrospinning technique and thermal treatment method under NH₃ atmosphere has been presented as a straightforward protocol for the fabrication of nitrogen-doped In₂O₃ (N-In₂O₃) nanofibers, the nitrogen content of which can be well controlled by adjusting the annealing temperature. Photocatalytic tests show that the N-In₂O₃ nanofibers demonstrate an improved degradation rate of Rhodamine B (RB) compared with pure In₂O₃ nanofibers under visible-light irradiation. This can be attributed to the nitrogen atom introducing at interstitial sites as well as the generation of oxygen vacancy on the surface of In₂O₃ nanofibers, resulting in the enhanced utilization of visible light for the N-In₂O₃ nanofibers. Furthermore, the obtained N-In₂O₃ nanofibers with the advantage of ultra-long one-dimensional nanostructures can be recycled several times by facile sedimentation and hence present almost no decrease in photocatalytic activity indicative of a well regeneration capability. Therefore, the as-fabricated nitrogen-doped In₂O₃ nanofibers as a promising photocatalyst present good photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant in waste water for practical application.