Preparation, Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity of F, Fe-Codoped Nano-TiO2

Pure and F, Fe-codoped TiO2 were prepared by sol-hydrothermal process, in which titanium (IV) n-butoxide, Fe (NO3)2·6H2O and NH4F were used as precursors. And the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and N2 adsorption-desorption method. The results showed that the F, Fe-codoped samples were principally single-phase anatase structures, and the particles possessed higher BET area than that of pure TiO2. The photocatalytic activity and reusability of the catalysts under UV light (365nm) was investigated with neutral red as the model compound. The results showed that F (2.0%), Fe (4.0%) codoped TiO2 had the highest photocatalytic activity among all as-prepared samples. The kinetic study showed that this photocatalytic process coincided with the Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) pseudo first order reaction model.