Chemical Doping of $TiO_2$ with Nitrogen and Fluorine and Its Support Effect on Catalytic Activity of CO Oxidation

The effect of substrate on catalytic activity of CO oxidation with transition metal Platinum nanoparticles on doped and undoped TiO2 was investigated. Titanium dioxide was doped chemically with non-metal anions including nitrogen and fluorine. Undoped TiO2 was synthesized via simple conventional sol-gel route. Thin films of titania were developed by spin coating technique and the characterization techniques SEM, XRD, UV-Vis Absorption Spectroscopy and XPS were carried out to examine the morphology of films, crystal phase, crystallites, optical properties and elemental composition respectively. XPS analysis from doped TiO2 confirmed that the nitrogen site were interstitial whereas fluorine was doped into TiO2 lattice substitutionally. Catalytic activity systems of Pt/doped-TiO2 and Pt/undoped-TiO2 were fabricated to reveal the strong metal-support interaction effect during catalytic activity of CO oxidation reactions. By arc plasma deposition technique, platinum nanoparticles with mean size of 2.7 nm were deposited on the thin films of doped and undoped titanium dioxide. The CO oxidation was performed with 40 Torr CO and 100 Torr O2 with 620 Torr He carrier gas. Turn over frequency was observed two to three folds enhancement in case of Pt/doped TiO2 as compared to Pt/TiO2. The electronic excitation and the oxygen vacancies that were formed with the doping process were the plausible reasons for the enhancement of catalytic activity.