Photocatalytic degradation evaluation of N-Fe codoped aligned TiO2 nanorods based on the effect of annealing temperature

Abstract

In this paper, a comparative study on the photocatalytic degradation of the Rhodamine B (RhB) dye as a model compound using N-Fe codoped TiO 2 nanorods under UV and visible-light (λ ≥ 420 nm) irradiations has been performed. TiO 2 photocatalysts were fabricated as aligned nanorod arrays by liquid-phase deposition process, annealed at different temperatures from 400 to 800 ℃. The effects of annealing temperature on the phase structure, crystallinity, BET surface area, and resulting photocatalytic activity of N-Fe codoped TiO 2 nanorods were also investigated. The degradation studies confirmed that the nanorods annealed at 600 ℃ composed of both anatase (79%) and rutile phases (21%) and offered the highest activity and stability among the series of nanorods, as it degraded 94.8% and 87.2% RhB in 120 min irradiation under UV and visible-light, respectively. Above 600 ℃, the photocatalytic performance of nanorods decreased owning to a phase change, decreased surface area and bandgap, and growth of TiO 2 crystallites induced by the annealing temperature. It is hoped that this work could provide precious information on the design of 1D catalyst materials with more superior photodegradation properties especially under visible-light for the further industrial applications. and 3.2 eV for rutile phase), which allows it to absorb only a small portion of sunlight corresponding to the UV region of solar spectrum. On the other hand, the recombination rate of photo-generated electron and hole pairs in TiO 2 is high [3]. Hence, these conclude the low photocatalytic efficiency of TiO 2 in the visible region. To overcome the drawback of low photocatalytic efficiency, considerable efforts have been taken, such as dimensionality reduction [4], metal and non-metal doping [5], and semiconductor coupling [6]. Onedimensional (1D) TiO 2 nanostructures, including nanobelts, nanofibers, nanorods, nanowires, and nanotubes [7][8][9][10][11] can be considered as one of good 108

Enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution by novel Nb-doped SnO2/V2O5 heteronanostructures under visible light with simultaneous basic red 46 dye degradation

“…TG-DTA analysis was conducted to evaluate the thermal properties of the obtained samples. Figure 1( which reveals the composition of organic compounds, as well as thermal decomposition of the intermediate complex containing NH 4+ and F − in the products [23]. This stage displayed weight loss percentages of about 16.5 and 15% in TGA curves for SV and 2.0Nb-SV heteronanostructures, respectively.…”

A Novel 2D Graphene Oxide Modified α-AgVO3 Nanorods: Design, Fabrication and Enhanced Visible-Light Photocatalytic Performance

“…The elimination of toxic organic dyes that hazarded to water resources and human health has aroused widespread attentions [1,2]. Photocatalysis has been regarded as a promising approach to surmount these concerns, wherein visible-light-driven photocatalysts play an important role [3,4]. However, currently, there are two limitations that hinder the performance and applications of photocatalysts.…”

Template Based Synthesis of Plasmonic Ag‐modified TiO2/SnO2 Nanotubes with Enhanced Photostability for Efficient Visible‐Light Photocatalytic H2 Evolution and RhB Degradation

“…[8] To extend the light absorption range, prolong the lifetimes of photoexcited electron-hole pairs and enhance the photocatalytic activity of TiO 2 , various strategies have been employed, such as surface modification, [10] bandgap engineering by doping with a transition metals (Cr, Mn, Co, Zn, Ni, Fe) [11][12][13] and non-metals (N, P, S, C, B, etc. ), [14][15][16][17] plasmonic coupling (Au, Ag, Pt and Pd) [18][19][20][21] and coupling with other semiconductors (ZnO, WO 3 , SrTiO 3 , SnO 2 , CdS, ZnS, CdSe, Cu 2 O and MoS 2 ). [22][23][24][25][26][27][28] Among these strategies coupling TiO 2 with other semiconductors is recognized as the most efficient modification, which can result in an effective separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, and improving the photocatalytic activity.…”