A visible light driven doped TiO2 nanophotocatalyst: Preparation and characterization

Abstract

A useful nanophotocatalyst (La,S-TiO₂) was prepared by a sol-gel method and characterized by UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence emission spectroscopy (PL) and scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The results showed that the La,S-TiO₂, which calcined at 550 °C, contained only anatase phaseand its crystal size was 23 nm. In addition, the FESEM analysis indicates that the La,S-TiO₂ nano particles with diameter of 20 to 25 nm could have a good dispersion in solution. In order to evaluate of activity of the modified synthesized photocatalyst (La,S-TiO₂), comparison between modified synthesized TiO₂ (La,S-TiO₂) and pure synthesized TiO₂ for degradation of Methyl Orange was investigated. It was found that the modified synthesized photocatalysis (La,S-TiO₂) has much higher photocatalytic activity than undoped TiO₂ for the degradation of contamination.