Novel Fe doped mesoporous TiO2 microspheres: Ultrasonic–hydrothermal synthesis, characterization, and photocatalytic properties

✍ Scribed by Haibin Li; Guocong Liu; Shuguang Chen; Qicheng Liu

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 522 KB
• Volume: 42
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1386-9477
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physe.2010.02.008

✦ Synopsis

Novel Fe doped mesoporous TiO 2 microspheres were fabricated by an ultrasonic-hydrothermal method when tetrabutyl titanate was used as a precursor and octadecylamine was used as a structure-directing agent. The mesoporous materials were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, N 2 adsorption-desorption measurements, XPS, FL, and UV-vis. The results suggest that both ultrasonic treatment and hydrothermal procedure are critical for the fabrication of Fe doped mesoporous TiO 2 microspheres with a combination of regular morphology, large specific surface area, high crystallinity, and high thermal stability. Low-angle XRD and TEM images indicate that the disordered wormhole-like mesostructure of Fe doped TiO 2 microspheres with diameters of about 300 À 400 nm is actually formed by the agglomerization of nanoparticles with an average size of about 10 nm. The photocatalytic activity of Fe doped mesoporous TiO 2 microspheres was evaluated by the photodegradation of methyl orange. A small amount of Fe 3 + can obviously enhance their photocatalytic activity. The optimal atomic ratio of Fe to Ti for photocatalytic activity is about 0.5 at%.