Photocatalytic activity of multielement doped TiO2 in the degradation of congo red

TiO2 although considered a promising photocatalyst for the degradation of aqueous pollutants, it suffers from poor absorption in the visible region and hence requires ultraviolet (UV) light for activation. To make TiO2 a visible active photocatalyst, multielement (C, N, B, and F) doping has been done. The synthesised CNBF/TiO2 catalysts were calcined at different temperatures and characterized by XRD, BET surface area, UV DRS, XPS, HRSEM–EDAX, and TEM techniques. These catalysts found to show less band gap values when compared to bare TiO2. These catalysts were tested for their catalytic activity towards the degradation of a textile dye – congo red (CR) under different reaction conditions. It was found that the photocatalytic activity was dependent on both doping of multielement and the calcination temperature of CNBF/TiO2. The co-doped catalysts which were calcined at 400 °C and 600 °C (100% intensity in anatase phase) were found to be the best catalysts (100% decolourisation of CR in 21/2 h and 2 h respectively). TOC analysis carried out for the samples at the reaction time of 5 h showed very high percentage (83%) degradation of CR over CNBF/TiO2 catalysts calcined at 600 °C when compared to the other catalysts calcined at different temperatures. CNBF/TiO2 (1000 °C) showed very less photocatalytic activity due to the formation of rutile phase.