Preparation and Photocatalysis Activity of Gd3+ and Eu3+ Co-doped TiO2 Powder

Pure TiO
₂
and Gd
³⁺
/Eu
³⁺
co-doped TiO
₂
composite nano-particle were prepared by sol-gel method and characterized by the techniques such as XRD and SEM. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) in aqueous solution was used as a probe reaction to evaluate their photocatalytic activity. The mechanisms of effects of Gd
³⁺
and Eu
³⁺
co-doped on the photocatalytic activity of the TiO
₂
composite nano-particles were also discussed. The results show that Gd
³⁺
and Eu
³⁺
co-doped can significantly enhance the photocatalytic activity of TiO
₂
nano-particles. The co-doped Gd
³⁺
and Eu
³⁺
shows a synergistic effect for photocatalytic activity of TiO
₂
nano-particles, can inhibt the phase transformation from anatase to rutile and decrease the diameter of TiO
₂
nano-particles. The matrix distortion of TiO
₂
nano-particles increases when the Gd
³⁺
and Eu
³⁺
have co-doped and the blue-shift of the absorption profile are clearly observed. When the co-doped amounts for Gd
³⁺
and Eu
³⁺
are 0.4% and 0.2%, the mass percent of rutile phase is 4.5%, the photocatalytic activity of TiO
₂
can be improved sffectively, and its degradation rate reaches 96.51%.