Photoinduced hydroxyl radical and photocatalytic activity of samarium-doped TiO 2 nanocrystalline

Abstract

Sm 3+-doped TiO 2 nanocrystalline has been prepared by sol–gel auto-combustion technique and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, and also UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). These Sm 3+-doped TiO 2 samples were tested for methylene blue (MB) decomposition and OH radical formation. The analysis of OH radical formation on the sample surface under UV irradiation was performed by fluorescence technique with using terephthalic acid, which readily reacted with OH radical to produce highly fluorescent product, 2-hydroxyterephthalic acid. It was observed that the presence of Sm 3+ ion as a dopant significantly enhanced the photocatalytic activity for MB degradation under UV light irradiation because both the larger specific surface area and the greater the formation rate of OH radical were simultaneously obtained for Sm 3+-doped TiO 2 nanocrystalline. The adsorption experimental demonstrated that Sm 3+-TiO 2 had a higher MB adsorption capacity than undoped TiO 2 and the adsorption capacity of MB increased with the increase of samarium ion content. The results also indicated that the greater the formation rate of OH radical was, the higher photocatalytic activity was achieved. In this study, the optimum amount of Sm 3+ doping was 0.5 mol%, at which the recombination of photo-induced electrons and holes could be effectively inhibited, the highest formation rate of OH radicals was, and thereby the highest photocatalytic activity was achieved.