Abstract: Urea was used as a precursor of carbon to prepare carbon doped TiO2 nanotubes. The products obtained were characterized with Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area measurement(BET), X-ray diffraction(XRD), transmission electron microscopy(TEM), energy dispersive X-ray fluoresence spectroscopy(EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS), solid diffuse reflection UV-Vis spectroscopy(DRS) and fluorescence spectroscopy. The results showed that the visible light photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 nanotubes was improved obviously after doping C. In addition, the influences of doping amount of C, calcination temperature, dosage of catalyst and pH on the photocatalytic degradation activity of the TiO2 nanotubes were investigated. The degradation efficiency of rodamine B could reach 91% under 3 h visible light irradiation when the amount of doping C was 5.3%, calcination temperature was 400 ℃, dosage of catalyst was 1.5 g/L, pH of solution was 5.

Key words: TiO2 nanotubes, carbon doping, preparation, visible light photocatalysis