Gd3+-doped monodisperse TiO2 hollow microspheres with various molar ratios of Gd3+/TBOT were synthesized via a novel process, which involved the preparation of SiO2 templates, deposition of Gd3+-doped TiO2 by sol-gel, SiO2 coating, heat treatment to induce crystallization of TiO2, and finally etching away the inner SiO2 templates and outer SiO2 layers. The synthesized samples were characterized by transmission electron microscopy（TEM）, scanning electron microscopy（SEM）, X-ray diffraction（XRD）, diffuse reflection spectroscopy（DRS）, specific surface area measurement（BET） and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）, respectively. The photocatalytic activity of Gd3+-doped samples was evaluated via photocatalytic degradation of Methyl orange under UV irradiation. The results show that the SiO2 layers prevent aggregation of TiO2 hollow microspheresand improve the thermal stability of the synthesized samples. Also, the photocatalytic activity of monodisperse TiO2 hollow microspheres can be enhanced at the optimal molar ration of Gd3+/TBOT of 0.7%.
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