Enhanced photocatalytic activities of Nd-doped TiO2 under visible light using a facile sol-gel method

摘要

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles modified with neodymium in the range of 1 mol% to 5 mol% were prepared with template-free sol-gel method.The structures of obtained samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction analysis.X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,scanning electron microscopy,transmission electron microscopy and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy.The photocatalytic activity of the obtained samples was evaluated by photodegradation of methyl orange in aqueous solution under ultraviolet-visible(λ> 350 nm) and visible(λ> 420 nm) irradiation.The experimental results show that the 1 mol% Nd-doped TiO2 exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity,of which the degradation can reach to 96.5% under visible irradiation.According to the XRD results,the pristine samples are combined with anatase TiO2 and rutile TiO2.while the Nd-doped TiO2 samples are anatase TiO2 only.This transformation has made an obvious promotion of photocatalyst activity after modification.