Structural properties of iron/titanium oxide nanoparticles synthesized by sol-gel method in the presence of poly(ethylene glycol)

Abstract

Iron/Titanium oxide nanoparticles with initial molar ratio Fe/(Fe+Ti) = 0.05 (low loading of Fe in TiO2) and Fe/(Fe+Ti) = 0.15 (high loading of Fe in TiO2) were synthesized by a modified sol-gel procedure using Ti(IV)-isopropoxide, FeSO4 ∙ 7H2O and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) as starting material. The amount of doped iron strongly affected structural properties as well as the degree of dispersion of iron in the Fe-Ti-O system. The highly-doped sample contained poorly crystallized hydrated iron(III)-sulphates or basic iron(III)-sulphates in a considerable amount. The lowly-doped Fe-TiO2 sample contained about 22 wt % of brookite that had taken up iron virtually in the same proportion as anatase. Contrary to quasi-homogeneous distributions of iron in the lowly-doped Fe-TiO2 sample, the uptake of iron in the highly-doped Fe-TiO2 sample heated at 500 °C is significant, but anatase is free from iron, thus suggesting a heterogeneous distribution of iron. The photocatalytic activity of the highly-doped Fe-TiO2 sample was better than that of the lowly-doped Fe-TiO2 sample, but still below the photoactivity of Degussa P25 reference photocatalyst.