The Effect of Chromium on the Optical Properties and Photoactivity of Nano-Particulate Rutile

Abstract

Chromium doped rutile TiO2was synthesized by either co-precipitation or impregnation (surface-doping) and characterized by XRD and reflectance spectroscopy. Chromium addition did not change the TiO2structure nor did the structure of the co-precipitated products differ from that of the impregnated samples. However, chromium doping moved the absorption of both sets of products into the visible and significantly affected the TiO2photocatalytic activity for isopropanol (IPA) oxidation. At high chromium concentrations the photoactivity of the co-precipitated samples was reduced by a larger amount than that of the impregnated samples; this was attributed to a higher concentration of Cr3+ions in the rutile lattice. Unexpectedly, increased photoactivity was measured for low Cr levels of surface-doped rutile. This may be caused by increased electron-trapping, at surface Cr6+ions, and correspondingly reduced, electron-hole recombination.