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 (E_g-Ti) to 3.15 eV (E_g-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 DR-UV data, the synthesized samples obtained in this study may also become promising catalysts for photo-assisted removal of synthetic dye in aqueous solution.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.19.4.2732