  Visible-light photocatalyst titanium dioxide (TiO2) was successfully prepared
via a novel and facile single-mode microwave assisted synthesis process. In
this one-step synthesis, Ti as target material selectively oxides in magnetic
field throughout rapid heating, whose process requires less energy consumption
and short time. In obtained TiO2, self-doping of Ti3+ was confirmed, which
makes TiO2 performed sufficient light absorption in visible region with
wavelength above 400 nm. Such Ti3+ self-doped TiO2 exhibits much narrower
optical bandgap (2.14 eV) to compare with stoichiometric TiO2 (3.0-3.2 eV). The
synthesized TiO2 also shows superior photocatalytic activity to commercially
available TiO2 towards the degradation of Rhodamine B under visible light
irradiation.
