Photocatalytic Activity of Multi-Doped TiO2 Nanoparticles for Degradation of Rhodamine B

摘要

Titanium dioxide (TiO2), as a chemically stable, nontoxic, highly efficient, and relatively inexpensive photocatalyst, has been widely used for water and air purification since many environmental pollutants can be degraded by oxidation and reduction processes on TiO2 surface. However, the application of TiO2 is limited by its UV activation requirement because of its large band gap. The current presents a facile sol-gel method for the synthesis of visible-light-active TiO2-based catalysts with multiple dopants. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, UV-vis spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Results revealed that TiO2's structure was slightly distorted by the substitution of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur dopants for some oxygen atoms and Fe3+ for Ti4+ in the lattice of TiO2. These dopants were responsible for narrowing the band gap and shifting the optical response shift of TiO2 from ultraviolet (UV) to the visible light region. Photocatalytic reaction showed that the reactivity of multi-doped TiO2 was significantly enhanced.