Enhanced photocatalytic performance and impact of annealing temperature on TiO2/Gd2O3:Fe composite

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics Vol. 33; no. 19; pp. 15448 - 15459
• Main Authors: Omri, K., Alonizan, N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-07-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Anatase; Annealing; Ball milling; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Composite materials; Fourier transforms; Gadolinium; Gadolinium oxides; Infrared spectroscopy; Materials Science; Optical and Electronic Materials; Optical properties; Photocatalysis; Spectrum analysis; Titanium dioxide
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-022-08451-y

This work relates to an experimental study concerning the elaboration of the composite material TiO
2
/Gd
2
O
3
:Fe (
TiO–Gd:Fe
) from powders of Gd
2
O
3
and TiO
2
via a ball milling process with different annealing temperatures. The micro-structural and morphological characterizations of the ground Gd
2
O
3
−TiO
2
mixture as well as the measurements of the optical properties were studied by X-ray diffraction (
XRD
), scanning electron microscopy (
SEM
), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (
FTIR
) and UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The X-ray results of the
TiO–Gd:Fe
composites reveal the presence of the TiO
2
anatase phase in addition to the Gd
2
O
3
phase. The direct band-gap of
TiO–Gd:Fe
sample is 3.22 eV for the 350 °C composite and 3.45 eV for the 600 °C composites. The results of
FTIR
spectroscopy confirm the presence of the TiO
2
phase. The results of the photocatalytic tests of the composites show the (
C
 − 
C
0
)/
C
0
ratio goes from 0.05 to 0.71 when the annealing temperature goes from 350 to 600 °C.