Photocatalytic Activity of Fe and Ce Co-doped Mesoporous TiO2 Catalyst under UV and Visible Light

The catalysts of un-doped, single-doped and co-doped mesoporous titanium dioxide (MTiO2) were prepared by a template method with tetrabutyltitanate (Ti(OC4H9)(4)) as a Ti source material and Pluronic P123 as a template. The photo-absorbance of the obtained catalysts was measured by UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, and the photocatalytic activities of the prepared samples under UV and visible light were estimated by measuring the degradation rate of methyl orange (MO) (50 mg/L) in an aqueous solution. It was shown that the co-doped MTiO2 could be activated by visible light and could thus be used as an effective catalyst in photo-oxidation reactions. The effect of Fe and Ce co-dopants on the material properties was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and N-2 adsorption-desorption isotherm measurement. The characterizations indicated that the photocatalysts possessed a homogeneous pore diameter of ca. 10 nm with high surface area of ca. 150 m(2)/g. The photocatalytic activity of MTiO2 co-doped with Fe and Ce was markedly improved due to the synergistic actions of the two dopants.