Preparation and photocatalytic properties of La-doped TiO2/tourmaline

Using Tourmaline as the carrier, titanium tetrachloride as precursor, La-doped nano-TiO2 thin films were loaded on the tourmaline by the hydrolysis precipitation method and La-TiO2/tourmaline composites were prepared. The structure and performance of the synthesized samples were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscope, ultraviolet-visible and so on. The photocatalytic activity of the samples was investigated by the degradation for formaldehyde. The results indicate that the particle size of La-doped anatase TiO2 calcined at 550 is small, and decreases from 13.5 nm without doping to 8.73 nm after La-doped. The absorption spectra of TiO2 photocatalyst occurs red shift after La-doped. TiO2/tourmaline and La-doped TiO2/tourmaline were irradiated 360 min under visible light, the removal rate to formaldehyde reached 66.4% and 82.2% respectively.