Preparation of hollow Nd/TiO2 sub-microspheres with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

RSC Advances Pub Date: 2017-07-11 DOI: 10.1039/C7RA05228F

Abstract

Hollow Nd-doped TiO2 sub-microspheres are synthesised via a controlled hydrolysis reaction, where carbon spheres are employed as the template. The building blocks of TiO2 doped with Nd are deposited on the surface of carbon spheres and subsequently, the carbon spheres are removed by calcination in air. The structure and morphology of the hollow Nd/TiO2 sub-microsphere composites are characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), low temperature N2 adsorption (Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis), simultaneous thermal analysis (TG-DTA), diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy (DRS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The SEM and TEM micrographs reveal that the as-prepared hollow Nd/TiO2 sub-microsphere composite has an average diameter of 100 nm and a special uniform morphology, where the hollow sub-microspheres are constructed by TiO2 nano-chains, which resemble cage-like structures. The Nd-doped Nd/TiO2 composites exhibit high visible light absorption capacity, high adsorption ability and high photocatalytic activity towards Rhodamine B (RhB). Further, the effect of neodymium content on the physical structure and photocatalytic properties of hollow Nd/TiO2 sub-microspheres is investigated. Finally, it is concluded that the higher photocatalytic performance of as-prepared hollow Nd/TiO2 sub-microspheres stems from their hollow structure comprised of Nd/TiO2 nanostructures and a high light-harvesting efficiency.

Graphical abstract: Preparation of hollow Nd/TiO2 sub-microspheres with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity
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