Effects of Fe Doping on the Structural, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of TiO2 Nanoparticles

Abstract

Fe-doped TiO2 nanoparticles have been prepared by the hydrolysis method. The effects of Fe doping on the structural, optical, and magnetic properties of the Ti1−xFexO2 (x = 0.00, 0.03, 0.06, 0.10, 0.13) materials were thoroughly investigated by a combination of various methods, including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) reflectance spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and vibrating-sample magnetometry. Analysis of the TEM and XRD measurements showed that the resulting powders had nanoscale particle size. The Fe-doped samples were found to be paramagnetic at room temperature (by magnetization measurements), with Fe acting as substitutional impurity at Ti sites in the anatase TiO2 phase. Substitution of Fe at Ti sites was also confirmed by Raman spectra. The paramagnetic nature of the Ti1−xFexO2 samples was further investigated using density functional theory calculations of their electronic band structure and density of states. Finally, the photocatalytic activity of the Fe-doped TiO2 samples was studied by investigating their photocatalytic decomposition of methylene blue.