Nitrogen-doped titanium dioxide: An overview of material design and dimensionality effect over modern applications

TiO2 material has gained attention as the most studied semiconductor material for photocatalytic purposes, including their use in devices for clean energy production, such as solar cells and water splitting systems. However, the wide band gap of this material limits applications to UV light, which also confines the use of solar irradiation as the energy source. Much research in the last years is showing the ability of N doping into TiO2 to promote light absorption in the visible range but, to date, it is still controversy if this doping is beneficial to the photocatalytic process, as well as the synthetic methods are not well stabilized yet. Then, this paper summarizes the recent advancement in the structural design perspective of N-doped TiO2 photocatalyst, in a critical analysis of its application for environmental purposes. We reported the dimensionality effect associated with modified N-doped TiO2 structure for its characteristics properties and photocatalytic performance; counting more specifically its charge transportation, surface area, adhesion, reflection and absorption properties. A concise view of the doping effect over morphology in 0, 1, 2 and 3-dimensional ranges was provided, in order to understand which effects are also occurring on the materials besides the photocatalytic response. Furthermore, selected recent and significant advances in the area of renewable energy applications for modified N-doped TiO2 were assessed with the particular importance given towards the electricity generation by dye-sensitized solar cells and lithium-ion batteries rechargeable for electric energy storage. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.