Preparation, characterization and photocatalytic performance of Nd3+-doped titania nanoparticles with mesostructure

Synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic activity of neodymium, nitrogen and neodymium–nitrogen doped TiO2

“…-The doping with Nd has a rather strong effect on the materials texture leading to increase of the BET surface, pores and micropores volume and area. The results are in agreement with the findings in [21,24], which show that Ln 3+ -ions slow-down the condensation during the synthesis of the doped material, retard the aggregation and growth of the particles thus inhibiting the agglomeration, taking place especially at relatively high heating temperatures. -BET surface area, the total pore volume and pore width of the Ndoped titania depend on the synthesis procedure conditions and (the former two) are the largest in comparison to all other studied catalysts with domination of pores with smaller diameter, similarly to P25.…”

“…Different methods for the preparation of Nd 3+ -doped catalyst have been proposed: coprecipitation-peptization route with direct conversion from amorphous to nanocrystalline phase at 70 8C and strong acidic conditions (pH 1.5) [1], addition of ammonium hydroxide to the mixture of TiCl 4 and NdCl 3 in aqueous solution and conversion from amorphous to semicrystalline phase at conditions similar to the above mentioned [16], sol-gel technique [17][18][19] followed by heating dry solid gel at different temperatures above 400 8C in air (at high calcination temperatures lanthanoide titanium oxides Ln 4 Ti 9 O 24 (La 3+ , Pr 3+ , Nd 3+ ), Ln 2 Ti 2 O 7 (Eu 3+ , Gd 3+ , Tb 3+ , Dy 3+ , Er 3+ ), and Yb 2 TiO 5 are developed [20]), one-step solgel-solvothermal method producing specimens with interesting surface compositions [7], hydrothermal process by using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as pore-forming agent [21], homogeneous hydrolysis of TiOSO 4 applied on large scale for application in photocatalytic self-cleaning paints [14].…”

Synthesis and visible-light photocatalytic activity of NdVO4 nanowires

“…The UV-vis spectrum shows that Nd 3+ can absorb visible light energy effectively for 4f electron transition. The transitions of 4f electrons lead to the enhancement of the visible light adsorption of the catalyst and promote the separation of photo-generated electron-hole pairs [8,10], as illustrated in Fig. 4d.…”

“…Therefore, development of visible light active photocatalysts to efficiently utilize solar energy is both an important and challenging research field [5][6][7]. The visible light photocatalytic activity of TiO 2 nanotubes [2], nanoparticles [3,8] and hollow spheres [4] have all been enhanced by doping with Nd, owing to the increased visible light absorption from the narrowed band-gap. In addition, a large number of un-doped semiconductor photocatalysts have been developed demonstrating absorption in the visible light region.…”

Crystalline transformation and photocatalytic performance of Bi2O3 by yttrium doping

“…It has been reported the doping of TiO 2 with rare earth ions influences its optical properties and leads to lower band gap energies [12,13]. Besides, it was found the photocatalytic activity of Y-doped TiO 2 is related to its z potential [14].…”