title: Unravelling the Efficient Photocatalytic Activity of Boron-induced Ti3+Species in the Surface Layer of TiO2.
abstract: Ti3+species are highly unstable in air owing to their facile oxidation into Ti4+species, and thus they cannot concentrate in the surface layer of TiO2but are mainly present in its bulk. We report generation of abundant and stable Ti3+species in the surface layer of TiO2by boron doping for efficient utilization of solar irradiation. The resultant photocatalysts (denoted as B-TiO2-x) exhibit extremely high and stable solar-driven photocatalytic activity toward hydrogen production. The origin of the solar-light activity enhancement in the B-TiO2-xphotocatalysts has been thoroughly investigated by various experimental techniques and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The unique structure invoked by presence of sufficient interstitial boron atoms can lead to substantial variations in density of states of B-TiO2-x, which not only significantly narrow the band gap of TiO2to improve its visible-light absorption, but also promote the photogenerated electron mobility to enhance its solar-light photocatalytic activity.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, National Center for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Ningdong
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, National Center for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Fen
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, National Center for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, National Center for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Anmin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, National Center for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials of MOE, Department of Materials Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Tiehong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, National Center for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Gengyu
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, National Center for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Applied Chemistry of Zhejiang Province and Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, National Center for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Deng