Preparation and photocatalytic application of a S, Nd double doped nano-TiO2 photocatalyst

Abstract

Nowadays, water pollution is getting more and more severe in society, and recently the rational use of photocatalytic technology to treat sewage has become a hot spot for research. Because of the low-cost and environmental friendliness of nano-TiO₂, it has attracted widespread attention. In this paper, we dope sulfur and neodymium into nano-titanium dioxide via a sol–gel method. The synthesized S, Nd-codoped-TiO₂ was characterized via transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, EDS and N₂ adsorption–desorption isotherms. Then the real-life dye reactive red (X-3B) was used as the target degradant to compare the levels of practicality of single-doped and double-doped photocatalysts. The results showed that the photocatalytic activity of S, Nd-codoped-TiO₂ was significantly higher than that of Nd–TiO₂. The double-doped photocatalyst was transformed from anatase to rutile, and the bandgap was reduced considerably. The responding ability to visible light also increased, so S, Nd-codoped-TiO₂ has obvious advantages and has better degradation efficiency for the target degradation products. Under xenon lamp irradiation and pH = 4 conditions, the degradation of reactive red using the new catalyst reached 93.2%. The new catalyst has high practicality and also indicates a new direction for wastewater treatment.