Effects of Nd-doping on crystal phase, structure and photocatalytic performance of TiO2 powders prepared by sol-gel method

Abstract

Abstract In this work, 0.3–2 mol% neodymium (Nd) doped titanium dioxide (TiO2) powder was prepared by sol–gel method. The XRD showed that the anatase phase occur for the Nd doped TiO2 powders, and the Nd doping suppressed the original rutile phase for the pure TiO2 powder. SEM and TEM revealed that Nd doping reduced the tendency of severe aggregation and increased the specific surface area compare with pure TiO2 powder, and the Gibbs free energy difference did not reach the critical value of the phase transition driving force, while the adjustment of the Ti-O bond length caused by the addition of Nd3+ impeded the transformation of TiO2 to rutile phase. The photocatalytic activity test results for Methylene blue show that the 0.5 mol% Nd doped TiO2 had the best photocatalytic activity with the degradation efficiency of 96.2%.