Effects of Fe-Doping on the Structures and Photocatalytic Activities of TiO2 Thin Films

Abstract

The Fe-doped TiO2 films were prepared by sol-gel method and characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS),X-ray diffraction(XRD),confocal microscope Raman spectrometer(Raman),UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy(UV-Vis) and atomic force microscopy(AFM).The photocatalytic activities of the films were evaluated by using the degradation of the methyl orange.The results showed that TiO2 in Fe/TiO2 films took an anatase structure when calcinated between 300 ℃ and 600 ℃.Increasing the calcination temperature up to 700 ℃,TiO2 transformed to rutile phase.The roughness and the grain size of Fe/TiO2 films grew gradually with the increases of the doping amount of Fe content and the calcination temperature.The photon excited wavelength of the Fe/TiO2 films moved to the visible light gradually with the increase of number of coating layer.Low levels of Fe-doping improved the photocatalytic activities of the TiO2 thin films,while higher doping decreased the photocatalytic activities of TiO2 thin films.The optimal Fe-doping was found to be 0.1% for the maximum degradation of methyl orange.