Y/Eu co-doped TiO2: synthesis and photocatalytic activities under UV-light

Y and Eu co-doped nano-TiO2 photocatalysts were successfully prepared via a sol-gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry (UV-vis), photoluminescence (PL) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra. Experimental results indicated that Y and Eu doping inhibited the growth of crystalline size and the transformation from anatase to rutile phase and had the function of reducing particle reunion. At the same time, co-doping could also enhance the absorption in visible region and then narrowed the band gap. The photocatalytic activities of the samples were evaluated by the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation, which showed much enhanced photocatalytic activities over un-doped TiO2. The degradation rate of 1.5% Y/Eu-TiO2 of methylene blue was 86%, which was about 5 times of that of un-doped TiO2, and the possible reasons for the improvement of photocatalytic activities were analyzed. In this experiment, the dopant amount of rare earth was 1.5% and the ratio of Y: Eu was 2: 3 for the maximum photocatalytic degradation, and the sample calcined at 500 degrees C showed the best reactivity. For the best samples above, the removal rate of phenol under visble light was 53% whthin 2 h.