Crystal Structure and Photocatalytic Characteristics of Nanoscale Sb-doped TiO2 Thin Films

Abstract

Nanoscale Sb doped titanium dioxide thin films photocatalyst (Ti1-xSbO2) were obtained from dip-coating sol-gel method. The influence of dopant Sb density on the crystal structure and the phase transformation of the thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectra. The results of XRD showed that as-prepared films were not only in anatase state but also in brookite. The crystalline size was estimated to be around 13.3-20 nm. Raman spectra indicated there coexisted other phases and a transformation from brookite to anatase in the samples doped with 0.2% Sb. After doping a proper amount of Sb, the crystallization rate and the content of the anatase Ti1-xSbO2 in the thin films was clearly enhanced because Sb replaced part of the Ti of TiO2 in the thin films. The anode current density (photocurrent density) and the first order reaction speed constant (k) of thin films doped with 0.2% Sb reached 42.49 A/cm2 and 0.171 h/cm2 under 254 nm UV illumination, respectively, which is about 11 times and 2 times that of the non-doped TiO2 anode prepared by the same method respectively.