Preparation and photocatalytic activity of Nd3+ and CTAB co-doped nanometer TiO2 thin films

Pure TiO2, Nd3+ doped TiO2 and Nd3+-CTAB co-doped TiO2 nanometer thin films were prepared by the sol-gel technique with tetrabutyl titanate and neodymium nitrate as raw materials and surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as template. The films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-Visible absorbance spectroscopy (UV-Vis). The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange. The results show that the all samples calcined at 500 degrees C are all anatase, and there are slight red shifts of the Nd3+ doped TiO2 and Nd3+-CTAB co-doped TiO2 films compared with pure TiO2 films and the red shift of Nd3+-CTAB co-doped TiO2 is more obvious than that of Nd3+ doped TiO2, which is beneficial to improve the photocatalytic efficiency. The 1.0% Nd3+-CTAB co-doped TiO2 nanometer film calcined at 500 degrees C had excellent photocatalytic efficiencies and the degradation rate of the film is more than 90% after 120 min.