Photophysical and photochemical properties of nanosized cobalt-doped TiO2 photocatalyst

Abstract

Cobalt-doped TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared by the sol-gel and hydrothermal synthesis methods by using a stable precursor potassium titanium oxalate as Ti source and Co(NO3)2·6H2O was used for doping titania. Physicochemical properties of the samples were characterized by XRD, FTIR, RAMAN spectroscopy, DRS, EPR, etc. EDX confirmed the presence of cobalt. DRS and TEM revealed that doping has taken place. The calcined materials contained cobalt in (II) state and were found to be room temperature ferromagnetic. The photocatalytic activity of the samples was evaluated by photodecomposition of the dye sunset yellow.