Synthesis and Characterization of Doped TiO2 Nanoparticles by the Sol-Gel Method and Investigation of Photocatalytic Activity

Cu^2+,Ce^3+-doped nanostructure TiO2-coated Nd^3+ (TiO2/Nd^3+) were prepared by sol-gel method. TiO2 were synthesized by the sol-gel method using tetra n-butyl orthotitanat (TBT) as a precursor. The prepared nanoparticles characterized by FT-IR, XRD, SEM- EDS and TEM. The XRD showed that the major phase of nanocomposite is anatase. The morphology of the TiO2/Nd^3+/Cu^2+and TiO2/Nd^3 +/Ce^3+ microsphere was investigated using SEM. The TEM shows that the size of TiO2/Nd^3+/Cu^2+and TiO2/ Nd^3+/Ce^3+were 8-10 nm. Moreover, particle shapes were spherical. IR spectrum indicated that Ti-O bond-formed in the chitosan-TiO2nano composite. Acid red 151(AR 151) removed photo-chemically by adding doped TiO2nanoparticle and H2O2 in the presence of the UV radiation. The results showed that the photo-degradation percentage decreased as oxidant concentration increases. The maximum degradation percentage (H2O2 0.2M) was about 96% TiO2/ Nd^3+catalyst. The result also showed that the kinetics model reaction in presence of both catalysts followed the fromof pseudo-second order equation presented by Blanchard.