A facile one-pot synthesis of gadolinium doped TiO2-based nanosheets with efficient visible light-driven photocatalytic performance

作者：Lu, Dingze; Fang, Pengfei^*; Liu, Yang; Liu, Zhi; Liu, Xinzhao; Gao, Yuanpeng; Chen, Feitai; Niu, Fei

来源：Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 2014, 16(10): 2636.

DOI：10.1007/s11051-014-2636-3

• TiO2-based nanosheets
• Gadolinium doping
• Photodegradation
• Rhodamine B

Gadolinium doped TiO2-based nanosheets (Gd-TNSs) with different Gd/Ti ratios are prepared by a facile one-pot hydrothermal method using gadolinium nitrate as the gadolinium precursor. The photocatalysts are characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Raman spectra, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ultraviolet-visible light diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), fluorescence spectra (FL), and N-2 adsorption-desorption measurement. The as-synthesized samples show clearly sheet-like structure, with the width of about 30-100 nm, length greater than 100 nm, and high specific surface area (200-300 m(2)/g). The patterns of XRD and Raman analyses indicate that doped gadolinium has obvious influence on the structure of samples. The band-gap energy (E-g) of photocatalysts reduce from 3.17 to 3.02 eV with the content of gadolinium increasing from 0.1 to 1.5 at. %. The FL emission intensity initially decreases with the content of Gd increasing and then increases after minimizing at 0.5 %-GdTNSs, which reveals that appropriate amount of gadolinium doping can effectively inhibit the recombination of photo-generated electrons and holes. The adsorption capacity and photocatalytic activity are evaluated by Rhodamine B (RhB). The best photocatalytic performance is obtained when the doping ratio of gadolinium is 0.5 at. %. The visible reaction rate (K-app) of 0.5 %-Gd-TNSs was 2.0-fold as compared to TNSs, and 4.7-fold as compared to P25. The possible mechanisms for enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activities are discussed in detail.

• 出版日期2014-9-16
• 单位武汉大学