Enhanced photo and sono-photo degradation of crystal violet dye in aqueous solution by 3D flower like F-TiO2(B)/fullerene under visible light

Abstract

3D flower like F-doped titanium dioxide bronze (F-TiO2(B)) and F-doped titanium dioxide bronze fullerene (F-TiO2(B)/fullerene) nanocomposite were facilely synthesized by using titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) and fullerene (C60) as precursors via combining ball milling - hydrothermal process. The structure of the synthesized photocatalysts has been characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The sonophotocatalytic and photocatalytic activities of the prepared catalysts were evaluated by performing the degradation of crystal violet (CV) dye in aqueous solution. The results reveal that the photocatalytic efficiency of photocatalysts considerably increases in the presence of ultrasonication. Also, they indicated that the photocatalytic and sonophotocatalytic degradation efficiencies for CV dye were more than 77% and 82% respectively, with only using 10 mg of the TiO2(B)/fullerene photocatalyst. As a result, the integration of fullerene into F-TiO2(B) with presented hybrid method, reduced the band gap from 3.01 eV for F-TiO2(B) to 2.6 eV for F-TiO2(B)/fullerene nanocomposite, leads to potential application in wastewater treatment.