Abstract
In the present work we report the sol-gel synthesis of pure TiO2 and (TiO2)1−x(Fe2O3)x nanocomposites with different Fe2O3 contents (x = 0, 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 for pure TiO2, Fe2O3 incorporated 0.1, 0.5, and pure Fe2O3 which are denoted as PT, 0.1F, 0.5F, and PF, respectively). The structural, morphological, optical, and surface texture of the prepared nanocomposites were characterized using various techniques. The structural studies confirm the strong influence of Fe2O3 contents on the crystallite sizes and dislocation values. The size of the crystallites was increased by the increase in Fe2O3 contents. The bandgap values elucidated from DRS analysis were decreased from 3.15 eV to 1.91 eV with increasing Fe2O3 contents. The N2-Physorption analysis has confirmed the mesoporous nature of the samples with a comparable specific surface area of 35 m2/g. The photoelectrochemical measurements (CV, CA and EIS) were performed to assess the photoelectric properties of the prepared materials. It was found that the PT samples have the highest catalytic activity and photocurrent response compared to other composites. The reduction in current density was as follows: 2.8, 1.65, 1.5 and 0.9 mA/cm2, while the photocurrent response was ca. 800, 450, 45, 35 µA/cm2 for PT, 0.1F, 0.5F and PF samples, respectively. The EIS results showed that the (TiO2)1−x(Fe2O3)x nanocomposites exhibit lower charge transfer resistance than pure titania and hematite samples.
Highlights
Titanium dioxide (TiO2 ) nanoparticles (NPs) exhibit interesting potential applications in various fields such as sensors, catalysts, optical filters, anti-reflection coatings, etc. [1].These TiO2 NPs are widely used in personal care products such as cosmetics, toothpaste, and sunscreen lotions [2,3,4]
Pure TiO2 is found in three dominant crystal structures, anatase, rutile, and brookite in nature [28]
The pure Fe2 O3 is formed in the rhombohedral hematite structure matching well with the ICDD pattern# 33-0664
Summary
Titanium dioxide (TiO2 ) nanoparticles (NPs) exhibit interesting potential applications in various fields such as sensors, catalysts, optical filters, anti-reflection coatings, etc. [1]. The sol-gel routed spin coating technique was employed to synthesize Fe-doped TiO2 NPs and observed that the optical transmittance is was decreased with increasing Fe dopant concentrations [21]. Despite TiO2 is considered one of the most extensively investigated photocatalysts due to its chemical and photostability, low cost and availability [22,23] Still, it suffers from a high recombination rate of photogenerated charge carriers and low activity in visible light due to its wide bandgap (Eg). Some of the applications use external bias to reduce the recombination rate, as in the case of PEC applications In view of these important and potential applications, it is worthwhile to study the different properties of Fe-doped TiO2. These materials were subjected to characterize for structural, morphological, optical, and photoelectrochemical properties
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