Abstract
To investigate the effect of transition metal doping on photocatalytic activity, thin films of titania doped with W, Mo, Nb or Ta were deposited onto soda-lime glass by pulsed DC reactive magnetron sputtering. As-deposited coatings and coatings annealed at both 400°C and 600°C were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The band gap values were determined from optical data for all samples. The photocatalytic properties of the coatings were studied by the degradation of methylene blue dye under both ultra-violet and fluorescent light sources. The results of the study showed that annealed TiO2 coatings doped with Mo and Nb had high photocatalytic activity in terms of methylene blue degradation, due to the presence of the anatase crystalline phase, whereas W and Ta-doped samples were predominantly of the rutile phase, and exhibited a lower photocatalytic activity. Doping of the titania coatings with Mo and W caused a band gap shift towards the visible range and improved the photocatalytic activity under visible light, compared to undoped titania. Excessive doping in all cases reduced the photocatalytic activity.
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