The Effects of Lanthanide Ions Doping and Chromophore Anchoring on the Photocurrent Response and Photocatalytic Behaviours of Titanium‐Oxo‐Clusters

Abstract

AbstractLanthanide‐titanium‐oxo‐clusters (LnTOCs) have been attractive as a rapidly growing class of molecular materials due to their use as molecular models and precursors of nano titanium oxide. Although various applications of LnTOCs with alkoxide/carboxylate ligands have been documented, phenol dyes coordination LnTOCs applications in antibiotics fields have not been reported yet. Herein three LnTOCs formulated as [Ti2Ln2O(OiPr)6(NO3)4(2,3‐DN)2]2 ⋅ 3.5Et3N ⋅ 2HOiPr (Ln=Tb (1), Eu (2) and Yb (3)) were designed and synthesized. Their structures consisted of a Ti2Tb2O subunit and two 2, 3‐DN ligands. Using cluster 1, Ti2(2, 3‐DN)2 and Ti2Tb2, photocurrent response and photocatalytic dye degeneration were examined. The improvements in photocurrent intensity and photocatalytic activity of dye‐degradation could be attributed to the cooperative effect of the Ln3+ doping and 2, 3‐DN coordination. Furthermore, using cluster 1 as a precursor, F1 exhibited high photoactivity for tetracycline. The antibiotics application of LnTOCs was evaluated firstly. The results indicate that clusters 1–3 have potential applications as a molecule based photodegeneration catalyst.