Preparation and photocatalytic activity of
neodymium doping titania loaded to silicon dioxide
(Institute of Biomaterial, College of Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China)
Abstract: Neodymium doping titania was loaded to silicon dioxide to prepare Nd/TiO2-SiO2 by sol-gel method and Nd/TiO2-SiO2 was characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS). Photocatalytic activities of Nd/TiO2-SiO2 with different neodymium contents were evaluated by degradation of methyl orange. The light absorption of Nd/TiO2-SiO2 increased with increasing doping neodymium in a visible light range of 388−619 nm, and Nd doping was in favor of decreasing the recombination of photo-generated electrons with holes. Nd and SiO2 improved the photocatalytic activity of TiO2. The optimal molar fraction of Nd to Ti was 0.1%, and the optimum calcination temperature was 600 °C. The highest degradation rate of methyl orange was 82.9% after irradiation for 1 h.
Key words: titania; silicon dioxide; neodymium doping; photocatalysis; sol-gel method