Visible-light-driven boron/ferrum/cerium/titania photocatalyst

Abstract

A boron/ferrum/cerium/titania photocatalyst with visible-light-induced performance was prepared by the conventional sol–gel method, in which tetrabutyl titanate (Ti(O- nC 4H 9) 4) was used as the precursor and boric acid (H 3BO 3), ferric nitrate enneahydrate (Fe(NO 3) 3·9H 2O), and cerium nitrate hexahydrate (Ce(NO 3) 3·6H 2O) were the sources of boron, ferrum, and cerium, respectively. The microstructure and optical property of the photocatalyst were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), N 2 adsorption–desorption isotherm, and UV–vis diffusive reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). It was found that the as-prepared photocatalyst composed of anatase and that the presence of impurities could retard phase transformation of TiO 2 from anatase to rutile at elevated temperatures and could prohibit growth of polycrystalline, which favored forming photocatalyst with large surface area. Degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenol (DCP) under visible light illumination was used to evaluate the photocatalytic activity. Comparative investigations showed that photocatalytic performance of the boron/ferrum/cerium/titania photocatalyst was the highest among the all test samples. It was testified that boron doping led to the band gap narrow and the response to visible light, and that ferrum and cerium impurities, which presented in the forms of FeO/Fe 2O 3 and Ce 2O 3/CeO 2, dispersed on the surface of TiO 2, suppressed the electron and hole recombination, and resulted in the enhancement of catalytic performance. The results exhibited that the synergistic effects of boron, ferrum and cerium played an important role in the band gap narrow and the increase of photoactivity.