The influence of Ce doping of titania on the photodegradation of phenol

Abstract

Pure and cerium-doped [0.05, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 1.0 Ce nominal atomic % (at.%)] TiO2 was synthesized by the sol-gel method. The obtained catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-visible diffused reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), Raman, and BET surface area measurement. The photocatalytic activity of synthesized samples for the oxidative degradation of phenol in aqueous suspension was investigated. The content of Ce in the catalysts increases both the transition temperature for anatase to rutile phase transformation and the specific surface area, and decreases the crystallite size of anatase phase, the crystallinity, and the band gap energy value. The material with higher efficiency corresponds to 0.1 Ce nominal at.%. Under irradiation with 350 nm lamps, the degradation of phenol could be described as an exponential trend, with an apparent rate constant of (9.1 ± 0.6) 10(-3) s(-1) (r(2) = 0.98). Hydroquinone was identified as the main intermediate.

Noble metal-modified octahedral anatase titania particles with enhanced activity for decomposition of chemical and microbiological pollutants

“…Metallic deposits under UV irradiation work as an electron sink that inhibits the recombination of charge carriers. Under visible light irradiation, either narrowing of the band-gap [42] , [43] , [44] or energy/electron transfer from the modifier to titania [45] , [46] , [47] causes a visible light response. Recently, modification of titania with NPs of noble metals that have a visible light absorption property due to localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) has been extensively studied, and such materials obtained are called plasmonic photocatalysts.…”

Synthesis and Photocatalytic Activity of Cerium‐Modified CdS‐TiO2 Photocatalyst for the Formaldehyde Degradation at Room Temperature

“…The crystallization peaks of anatase TiO 2 are obviously weakened and broadened with the introduction of CdS, indicating that CdS restrains the formation of TiO 2 crystals. The intensity of the crystalline peaks of CdS slightly enhanced when the Ce(NO 3 ) 3 · 6H 2 O/butyl titanate mass ratio was 1.5 wt % , . However, when the Ce(NO 3 ) 3 · 6H 2 O/butyl titanate mass ratio was 2.1 wt %, the pattern of Ce‐CdS‐TiO 2 showed a weak diffraction peak at 2 θ = 25.28, and the results of the performance test showed that the photocatalytic performance of the catalyst was adversely affected by reduced crystallinity …”

Combination of sunlight, oxidants, and Ce-doped TiO2 for phenol degradation

“…In previous work, we reported that the addition of a low amount of cerium (0.1 nominal atomic percent) to TiO 2 catalysts increases the percentage of phenol degradation compared to that of undoped material (Martin et al 2015). As far as we know, there are no previous studies on the effect of inorganic oxidants for that experimental condition, i.e., Ce-doped TiO 2 as catalyst.…”

“…The prepared material will be referred to hereafter as 0.1Ce (referring to 0.1 Ce nominal atomic percent). A more detailed description of the catalyst synthesis and its characterizations has been previously reported (Martin et al 2015).…”

“…The modification of TiO 2 doped with Ce shows a significant potential to overcome the high charge carrier recombination that pristine TiO 2 particles present (Silva et al 2009). Additionally, Ce incorporation into TiO 2 induces a red shift of the electronic absorption band, promoting the generation of e − CB and h + VB under visible-light irradiation (Sun et al 2014;Martin et al 2015).…”