Envirronmentally friendly fabrication of Fe₂TiO₅-TiO₂ nanocomposite for enhanced photodegradation of cinnamic acid solution

Abstract

In this study, Fe2TiO5-TiO2 heterostructured composites (FTO-Ti) were synthesised via a simple combination of the sol-gel and hydrothermal methods in a neutral medium of water. Various techniques were used to investigate the characteristics of the FTO-Ti samples, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller adsorption (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and point of zero charges (PZC). Compared to TiO2, the combination of FTO and TiO2 significantly reduces crystal and particle size and increases surface area six-fold, while simultaneously reducing the band gap energy of the catalyst and extending the region of photon absorption zone toward visible wavelengths (407 versus 395 nm). The photocatalytic activity of the FTO-Ti samples was studied using the batch method for the photodegradation of cinnamic acid (CA). The FTO content was found to strongly influence the photocatalytic performance of the FTO-Ti composites. Of the samples studied, 10% FTO-TiO2 nanocomposite exhibits the highest activity for CA decomposition. In the optimum conditions, its maximum 90 min CA conversion reaches 89.0%, which is much higher than both bare Fe2TiO5 (8.5%) and TiO2 (74.8%). Moreover, the catalyst can easily be recovered and reused for at least eight reaction cycles. The results show that hybridising the small band gap Fe2TiO5 pseudobrookite with a large band gap TiO2 semiconductor is a promising approach for the fabrication of highly active photocatalysts.

Green Fabrication of Heterostructured CoTiO3/TiO2 Nanocatalysts for Efficient Photocatalytic Degradation of Cinnamic Acid

“…In some studies, TiO 2 was combined with pseudobrookites such as Fe 2 TiO 5 , or Al 2 TiO 5 to construct heterostructure photocatalysts having high efficiency. In this work, the type-II heterojunction Fe 2 TiO 5 /TiO 2 was synthesized by carbon templates and ion adsorption.…”

“…The hollow nanosphere had a high surface area of 220 m 2 /g and its photocatalytic activity was three times that of P25 in the degradation of rhodamine B. Meanwhile, Fe 2 TiO 5 /TiO 2 25 and Al 2 TiO 5 /TiO 2 26 heterostructures were synthesized via a simple combination of sol–gel and hydrothermal methods in a neutral medium of water. It was found that compared to TiO 2 , the combination of TiO 2 with Fe 2 TiO 5 and Al 2 TiO 5 has significantly reduced the crystal and particle size, increased the surface area, simultaneously reduced the band gap energy of the catalyst, and extended the region of the photon absorption zone toward visible waves (407 vs 395 nm).…”