Synthesis and characterization of V-doped TiO2 nanoparticles through polyol method with enhanced photocatalytic activities

Abstract

This work reports the synthesis of vanadium-doped titanuim dioxide nanoparticles using titanium chloride and ethylene glycol as precursor and solvent respectively. The properties of as-prepared samples were investigated by X-ray diffractometry, scaning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance, and thermal analysis. X-ray diffraction patterns indicate that the TiO2 nanoparticles obtained after calcination at 500 °C under air atmosphere has the anatase phase with a tetragonal structure and the crystallite sizes were in the range 16.83–12.27 nm. The transmission electron microscopy was used to detect the morphology of synthesized nanoparticles. The functional groups present in the samples were identified by FTIR study. From the optical studies, there is a blue shift in the absorption edge for our samples that can be attributed to the presence of V in the TiO2. For V doped TiO2 nanoparticles the optical band gap varies between 3.18 and 2.60 eV with the increase of V concentration. The TGA findings allow the thermal cycle determination of samples whereas DTA findings allow the phase transition temperature identification. Finally, the evaluation of the photocatalytic activity is carried out using methyl blue as model of chemical pollutants in UV irradiation conditions and followed satisfactory the pseudo first order according to the Langmuir–Hinshelwood model.