Structural and optical studies of Ni/S Co doped TiO2 nanorods via sol-gel route

Abstract

Nano crystalline TiO2 particles doped with various concentrations of Ni/S were successfully synthesized via sol-gel route using titanium tetra iso-propoxide while titanium precursor, Ni (NO3)2.6H2 O (nickel source) and CS (NH2)2 (sulfur source). The prepared particles were characterized by standard analytical techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The photocatalytic activity of Ni/S-TiO2 is estimated through photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B solution under UV irradiation. The XRD data exhibit that the average crystallite size decreases with increase in Ni/S proportions in TiO2 and the crystal structure of TiO2 does not change upon the loading of Ni/S. The particles shape changes from spherical to rod and hence rod-like particles are dominant and lightly stuck together. The spectra of pure TiO2 and doped TiO2 explains emission peak is a blue shift and seen that maximum peak is around 410 nm. This maximum peak shift mainly aspect to increased electron density at oxygen site. In PL spectra emissions observed for all the doped samples are attributed to the oxygen vacancies and Ti vacancies introduced after Ni/S doping. Compared with pure TiO2 nanoparticles, Ni/S doped TiO2 photocatalyst exhibited high photocatalytic activity under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation in the degradation of Rhodamine B aqueous solution. The maximum 97 % of degradation efficiency of Rhodamine B was observed at 3:1 Ni/S-TiO2 within 120 min. The photocatalytic efficiency of Rhodamine B of Ni/S doped TiO2 nanoparticle was higher than that of pure TiO2..