Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Rhodamine B Using C/Fe Co-Doped Titanium Dioxide Coated on Activated Carbon

Abstract

Carbon and iron co-doped titanium dioxide catalyst coated on activated carbon (Fe-C-TiO2/AC) was successfully synthesized using the sol-gel method, followed by hydrothermal treatment. Commercial activated carbon was treated by HNO3 prior to being coated by the as-synthesized catalyst. The composite was characterized by XPS, XRD, UV-Vis spectrophotometry, IR, TEM, HR-TEM, and BET. The performance of the supported catalysts was evaluated in the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) in the solution under visible-light irradiation. The results showed that, with the appropriate amount of activated carbon, prepared Fe-C-TiO2/AC catalysts exhibited higher catalytic activities and Fe-C-TiO2/AC system showed the best performance. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of Fe-C-TiO2/AC was enhanced due to the synergistic effect between AC (adsorption effect) and Fe-C-TiO2 (photocatalysis effect). This facilitated the photocatalytic degradation of RhB by Fe-C-TiO2.

Eco-Friendly Photocatalyst Derived from Egg Shell Waste for Dye Degradation

“…Metal oxides such as titanium oxide [16][17][18] and zinc oxide [19,20] are widely studied and used in degradation of dye materials photocatalytically. e inherent problems which limit the use of TiO 2 is the band gap which is ∼3.2 eV and requires UV light to operate as a photocatalyst [21]. Studies are extended to include composites of TiO 2 or ZnO with other metal oxides aiming higher degradation efficiency and photocatalytic activity using visible light [21][22][23][24][25].…”

Photocatalytic performance of biochar-modified TiO2(C/TiO2) for ammonia–nitrogen removal

“…As is widely known, TiO 2 can be efficiently excited by the ultraviolet part of sunlight, while an absorption band change can be subsequently found in the composed material. 30–33 Here, C/TiO 2 could effectively absorb ultraviolet light, and also efficiently utilize the relatively long wavelength of visible light. Sunlight represents the sum energy of visible light and ultraviolet light, which made the total light energy absorbed by C/TiO 2 greater than that for ultraviolet light, and led to the improved light-utilization efficiency and removal capacity of NH 3 –N.…”

Performance of Iron-Doped Titanium Dioxide-Loaded Activated Carbon Composite Synthesized by Simplified Sol–Gel Method for Ciprofloxacin Degradation under Ultraviolet Light

“…This indicates that during the sol-gel synthesis process of Fe 3+ -TiO 2 /AC, AC is coloaded with Fe 3+ -TiO 2 , enriching the surface with these functional groups [40]. The absorption peak near 500 cm −1 can be attributed to the vibrational absorption peak of the Ti-O-Ti skeleton [41], indicating that the vibrational peaks of the Ti-O and Fe-O bonds of the Fe 3+ -TiO 2 /AC materials synthesized via the simplified sol-gel method appear at low wavenumbers. Since the radii of Fe 3+ and Ti 4+ are similar, their vibrational peaks overlap with those of Ti-O, suggesting that Fe 3+ is introduced into the TiO 2 lattice through substitution during material synthesis [18,42].…”