Preparation and photocatalytic activity of neodymium doping titania loaded to silicon dioxide

Neodymium doping titania was loaded to silicon dioxide to prepare Nd/TiO2-SiO2 by sol-gel method and Nd/TiO2-SiO2 was characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS). Photocatalytic activities of Nd/TiO2-SiO2 with different neodymium contents were evaluated by degradation of methyl orange. The light absorption of Nd/TiO2-SiO2 increased with increasing doping neodymium in a visible light range of 388-619 nm, and Nd doping was in favor of decreasing the recombination of photo-generated electrons with holes. Nd and SiO2 improved the photocatalytic activity of TiO2. The optimal molar fraction of Nd to Ti was 0.1%, and the optimum calcination temperature was 600 degrees C. The highest degradation rate of methyl orange was 82.9% after irradiation for 1 h.