Structural, luminescence emission and photocatalytic properties of pure and Dy3+ doped anatase TiO2 nanorods

Abstract

White light emitting and highly efficient photocatalytic active dual functional 1%Dy3+ ions doped TiO2 (DTH) nanorods (NRs) have been prepared by the simple hydrothermal method at different operating temperatures. The obtained samples were further subjected to different annealing temperatures. X-ray diffraction results revealed the polycrystalline nature and having a tetragonal crystal structure with anatase phase. DTH NRs show the declined crystallite size with doping of Dy (III) ions and increased with annealing temperature. SEM pictures of pure TiO2, and DTH NRs endorsed the particles with rod like structure. The IR bands at 669 cm−1 and 485 cm−1 are assigned to the Ti–O–Ti bending and Ti–O stretching vibrations of TiO2. The DTH NRs have high refractive indices and narrow band gap energies. At ultraviolet (385 nm) excitation, the DTH NRs display visible photoluminescence (PL) emission and exhibit the suitable color coordinates for white light emission. The DTH NRs exhibited enhanced visible light-derived photocatalytic activity (PCA) for the decolorization of methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO).