Synthesis, characterization and properties of CeO2-doped TiO2 composite nanocrystals

Abstract

Pure TiO2 and CeO2-doped TiO2 (3 % CeO2-97 %TiO2) composite nanocrystals were synthesized via co-precipitation method and characterized using TGA, XRD, FTIR, DR-UV-vis and TEM. The XRD data revealed that the phase structure of the synthesized samples was mainly in pure anatase having crystallite size in the range of 7 nm - 11 nm. Spherical shapes with moderate aggregation of the crystal particles were observed under the TEM observation. The presence of the CeO2 at TiO2 site has not only affected morphologically but also induced the electronic property of the TiO2 by lowering the band gap energy from 3.29 eV (Eg-Ti) to 3.15 eV (Eg-CeTi). Performance evaluation of the synthesized samples showed that both samples have a strong adsorption capacity toward Congo red (CR) dye in aqueous solution at room temperature experiment, where the capacity of the CeTi was higher than the Ti sample. Based on DRUV data, the synthesized samples obtained in this study may also become promising catalysts for photo-assisted removal of synthetic dye in aqueous solution.