The Role Of Iron Dopant On The Photocatalytic Performance Of Anatase TiO2: Synthesis, Characterization, And Removal Of Bisphenol-A Under Simulated Natural Light

The current research focuses on the synthesis, characterization, photocatalytic activity, and the reusability of Fe-doped- TiO2 photocatalyst. The photocatalyst were successfully synthesized using sol-gel method with different Fe-doping concentrations (0.3, 0.5, 1.0 mol%). The lattice strain induced from XRD data reveals that the more iron content, the more distortions, and imperfections presented in samples. BET results affirmed that doping with iron, the specific surface area were 10% better than that of pristine TiO2. Fe-doping was able to narrow the band gap to 2.69eV, mainly due to the creation of the localized levels of Fe-3d states. Indeed, the photoluminescence (PL) emission intensity of Fe-doped- TiO2 samples decreases with an increase in Fe-doping-concentration. Under the optimum condition of 1 g.L−1 0.5 mol%Fe-doped-TiO2 catalyst, non-pH-adjusted and 180 min irradiated under simulated natural light, the removal efficiency of BPA (10 mg.L−1) reached 92%. Superoxide radical was found to be the dominant species in the photodegradation of BPA by Fe-doped-TiO2. The 0.5 mol%Fe-doped- TiO2 remained stable in the photocatalytic process after repeated use for five consecutive runs, demonstrating the promise potential in the practical environmental remediation applications. This study opens up an alternatives in enhancement of the TiO2 catalytic properties. © The Author(’s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC.