Abstract
Composite photocatalysts composed of TiO 2 and ZrO 2 have been prepared via the sol–gel method. The as-prepared nanocomposites are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV–vis spectrometry and fluorescence emission spectra. The results shows that TiO 2/ZrO 2 nanocomposites are composed of mainly anatase titania and tetragonal ZrO 2. Incorporating TiO 2 particles with ZrO 2 plays an important role in promoting the formation of nanoparticles with an anatase structure and leads to decreased fluorescence emission intensity. Most of the TiO 2/ZrO 2 nanocomposites exhibited comparable photocatalytic activity compared with commercial TiO 2 for the degradation aqueous methyl orange (MO) under ultraviolet irradiation, while the composite with Zr/Ti mass ratio of 15.2% shows the highest photocatalytic performances. Furthermore, the as-prepared nanocomposites can be reused with little photocatalytic activity loss. Without any further treatment besides rinsing, the photocatalytic activity of TiO 2/ZrO 2 (15.2%) composites is still higher than after five-cycle utilization.
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