Envirronmentally friendly fabrication of Fe2TiO5-TiO2 nanocomposite for enhanced photodegradation of cinnamic acid solution

Abstract

In this study, Fe2TiO5-TiO2 heterostructured composites (FTO-Ti) were synthesised via a simple combination of the sol-gel and hydrothermal methods in a neutral medium of water. Various techniques were used to investigate the characteristics of the FTO-Ti samples, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller adsorption (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and point of zero charges (PZC). Compared to TiO2, the combination of FTO and TiO2 significantly reduces crystal and particle size and increases surface area six-fold, while simultaneously reducing the band gap energy of the catalyst and extending the region of photon absorption zone toward visible wavelengths (407 versus 395 nm). The photocatalytic activity of the FTO-Ti samples was studied using the batch method for the photodegradation of cinnamic acid (CA). The FTO content was found to strongly influence the photocatalytic performance of the FTO-Ti composites. Of the samples studied, 10% FTO-TiO2 nanocomposite exhibits the highest activity for CA decomposition. In the optimum conditions, its maximum 90 min CA conversion reaches 89.0%, which is much higher than both bare Fe2TiO5 (8.5%) and TiO2 (74.8%). Moreover, the catalyst can easily be recovered and reused for at least eight reaction cycles. The results show that hybridising the small band gap Fe2TiO5 pseudobrookite with a large band gap TiO2 semiconductor is a promising approach for the fabrication of highly active photocatalysts.