Hydrothermal synthesis of visible light sensitive vanadium doped TiO2 photocatalysts and their applications for the degradation of isobutanol diluted in water

Abstract

Vanadium doped TiO2 photocatalysts (V/TiO2) were synthesized by sol-gel method and hydrothermal treatment using tetraisopropyl orthotitanate (TPOT) and vanadium acetylacetonate in the presence and absence of NH4F. In comparison to the vanadium non-doped TiO2 (pure TiO2), V/TiO2 exhibited the long-tailed absorption in the visible light region above 380 nm. Degradation of isobutanol diluted in water proceeded efficiently on V/TiO2 even under visible light (λ > 430 nm) irradiation, although pure TiO2 did not show any photocatalytic activities. It was also found that the hydrothermally synthesized V/TiO2 (HT-V/TiO2) in the presence of NH4F possessed high crystallinity of anatase phase and hydrophobic surface, showing the higher photocatalytic activities as compared to those of sol-gel V/TiO2 as well as HT-V/TiO2 prepared in the absence of NH4F.