Nitrogen and Copper doped solar light active TiO2 photocatalyst for water decontamination

A novel class of photocatalytic coating capable of degrading bacterial and chemical contaminants in the presence of visible sunlight wavelengths was produced by depositing a stable photocatalytic TiO₂ film on the internal lumen of glass bottles via a sol gel method. This coating was prepared in either undoped form or doped with nitrogen and/or copper to produce visible light-active TiO₂ films which were annealed at 600 °C and were characterized by Raman, UV-Vis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The presence of doped and undoped TiO₂ films was found to accelerate the degradation of methylene blue in the presence of natural sunlight, while copper-doped TiO₂ films were found to accelerate bacterial inactivation (of E. coli and E. faecalis) in the presence of natural sunlight.