Preparation, Characterization and Effectivity of N, Fe-TiO2 as a Visible Light Active Photocatalyst

Abstract

Surface modification of the titanium dioxide by doping and co-doping with nitrogen and iron in order to make the photocatalyst active under visible light was investigated. Solgel method was adapted for the preparation of surface modified titanium dioxide, where tetra titanium isopropoxide, ammonium nitrate and ferric nitrate were used as precursors while maintaining the dopant concentration and calcination temperature at 0.75% and 600°C, respectively. The prepared photocatalyst samples were characterized by XRD, FE-SEM and FTIR in order to study their physical properties. The results from XRD confirmed that all prepared photocatalyst were of anatase phase. FE-SEM image analysis revealed the formation of fine particles and the FTIR analysis verified the presence of dopants. The effectivity of photocatalysts was tested by performing a standard batch photocatalytic degradation experiment with methylene blue as a model pollutant under visible light. The result showed that co-doped photocatalyst (0.75% N, 075% Fe-TiO2-600) yielded a maximum of 76% methylene blue degraded within three hours of irradiation time.