Investigation on visible-light induced photocatalytic activity for pure, Ce:doped TiO2 and B:Ce co-doped TiO2 catalysts

Abstract

In this study, the photocatalytic activity of pristine and Boron (B) - Cerium (Ce) co-doped titanium dioxide (TiO2) have been investigated towards the degradation of aqueous solution of Methylene Blue (MB) dye under visible light activity. The B:Ce co-doped TiO2 catalyst was successfully prepared by co-precipitation method. The structural, optical, and morphological properties of the synthesized samples were characterized by different techniques. PXRD analysis revealed that the prepared nanoparticles (NPs) have tetragonal crystal structures with an anatase phase. In FESEM analysis, the different morphologies (spherical and nanorod bundles) were observed from the synthesized Pure, Ce:TiO2 and B:Ce co-doped TiO2 NPs. The UV-Vis DRS and PL studies showed that B:Ce doped TiO2 exhibited enhanced visible light absorption activity and less electron-hole pair recombination rate. The findings demonstrated the incorporation of B and Ce ions into the TiO2 lattice, which can increase the absorption region to visible light and prevent the recombination rate of e-/h+ pairs. The results of the photocatalytic experiment show that B-Ce co-doped TiO2 improves photodegradation performance, with 97%, 98.0%, and 99% of the MB dye decomposing within 150 min of illumination under simulated visible light irradiation.