Abstract
To improve the efficiency of TiO2as a photocatalyst for contaminant degradation, a novel nanocomposite catalyst of (N, Fe) modified TiO2nanoparticles loaded on bentonite (B-N/Fe-TiO2) was successfully prepared for the first time by sol-gel method. The synthesized B-N/Fe-TiO2catalyst composites were characterized by multiple techniques, including scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), nitrogen adsorption/desorption, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). The results showed that bentonite significantly enhanced the dispersion of TiO2nanoparticles and increased the specific surface area of the catalysts. Compared with nondoped TiO2, single element doped TiO2, or unloaded TiO2nanoparticles, B-N/Fe-TiO2had the highest absorption in UV-visible region. The photocatalytic activity of B-N/Fe-TiO2was also the highest, based on the degradation of methyl blue (MB) at room temperature under UV and visible light irradiation. In particular, the synthesized B-N/Fe-TiO2showed much greater photocatalytic efficiency than N/Fe-TiO2under visible light, the newly synthesized B-N/Fe-TiO2is going to significantly increase the photocatalytic efficiency of the catalyst using sun light.
Highlights
Environmental applications of titanium dioxide (TiO2) have received a lot of recent interests from researchers
In order to prove that the synthesized catalysts have been successfully modified with N/Fe doping and loaded on bentonite, multiple characterization techniques were employed, including FTIR, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM)-energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), and X-ray fluorescence (XRF)
FTIR analysis in the range of 4000 cm−1 to 400 cm−1 was performed on TiO2, N doping in TiO2 (N-TiO2), Fe3+ has been doped in TiO2 (Fe-TiO2), and B-N/Fe-TiO2 (Figure 1)
Summary
Environmental applications of titanium dioxide (TiO2) have received a lot of recent interests from researchers. The high rate of electron-hole recombination in TiO2 system leads to low photocatalytic efficiency [6]. The fast agglomeration of TiO2 nanoparticles causes the formation of larger particles resulting in lower catalytic efficiency [7]. To overcome these three difficulties, researchers have attempted to modify TiO2 with three specific strategies. The TiO2 nanoparticles loaded on bentonite (B-TiO2) showed increased specific surface area, thermal stability, cations exchange ability, and photocatalytic efficiency for pollutant degradation [22,23,24,25]. There is no report on the B-N/Fe-TiO2 photocatalytic efficiency difference under UV and visible lights for the degradation of a model pollutant methyl blue (MB). We synthesized and fully characterized B-N/FeTiO2, and we measured its photocatalytic efficiency for MB degradation under UV and visible lights, and the mechanisms of its enhanced performance were elucidated
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