Lanthanide oxide-doped titanium dioxide: effective photocatalysts for the degradation of organic pollutants

K. T. Ranjit*, H. Cohen, I. Willner, S. Bossmann, A. M. Braun

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

102 Scopus citations

Abstract

A series of lanthanide oxide-doped titanium dioxide photocatalysts Ln2O3/TiO2 (Ln3+ = Eu3+, Pr3+, Yb3+) were prepared. The photocatalysts reveal a substantially enhanced activity for the degradation of organic pollutants, as compared to undoped TiO2. The photodegradation processes of p-nitrobenzoic acid, (1), p-chlorophenoxyacetic acid, (2), aniline, (3), salicylic acid, (4), and trans-cinnamic acid, (5), with the different photocatalysts was examined. The photodegradation of (1)-(5) is significantly faster with Ln2O3/TiO2 photocatalysts and leads to complete mineralization of the organic compounds. The high activity of the Ln2O3/TiO2 photocatalysts is attributed to the enhanced association of the functionalized organic pollutants to lanthanide-ion surface sites.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5273-5280
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Materials Science
Volume34
Issue number21
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Nov 1999

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