A visible light driven doped TiO2 nanophotocatalyst: Preparation and characterization

A useful nanophotocatalyst (La,S-TiO2) was prepared by a sol-gel method and characterized by UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence emission spectroscopy (PL) and scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The results showed that the La,S-TiO2, which calcined at 550 °C, contained only anatase phaseand its crystal size was 23 nm. In addition, the FESEM analysis indicates that the La,S-TiO2 nano particles with diameter of 20 to 25 nm could have a good dispersion in solution. In order to evaluate of activity of the modified synthesized photocatalyst (La,S-TiO2), comparison between modified synthesized TiO2 (La,S-TiO2) and pure synthesized TiO2 for degradation of Methyl Orange was investigated. It was found that the modified synthesized photocatalysis (La,S-TiO2) has much higher photocatalytic activity than undoped TiO2 for the degradation of contamination.