Effect of CeO2 content in morphology and optoelectronic properties of TiO2-CeO2 nanoparticles in visible light organic degradation

Abstract

TiO2 is a semiconductor widely used in photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants due to its band gap energy. However, its absorption range is restricted only to UV radiation that is less than 10% of solar light. With the aim of increasing the adsorption area on TiO2 nanoparticles a modified sol-gel method was used to produce a smaller particle size, and to extend the absorption range to the visible spectrum, TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized with different CeO2 contents to generate semiconductor heterojunction between them. The crystallographic, morphological, and optoelectronic characteristics of these TiO2-CeO2 nanoparticles were studied, and two crystalline phases were differentiated: anatase for TiO2 and fluorite for CeO2. An increase in the CeO2 content produced crystallite sizes between 6.5 nm and 12.0 nm. TiO2-CeO2 nanoparticles showed morphological properties such as small particle size, heterogeneous surface and high BET surface area compared to bare commercial TiO2. These features involve a positive effect of CeO2 in TiO2 nanoparticles surface, thus TiO2-CeO2 nanoparticles exhibit enhanced optoelectronic properties caused by a decrease in the effective band gap and red-shift in the electromagnetic spectrum. In addition, methylene blue degradation showed that TiO2-CeO2 nanoparticles are suitable for high photocatalytic activity application under visible light.