One-Pot Facile Synthesis of Cerium-Doped TiO2 Mesoporous Nanofibers Using Collagen Fiber As the Biotemplate and Its Application in Visible Light Photocatalysis

Cerium-doped TiO2 (Ce-x/TiO2) mesoporous nanofibers were prepared by one-pot facile synthesis method using collagen fiber as the biotemplate. The physicochemical properties of the as-prepared Ce-x/TiO2 nanofibers were well characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), N-2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectrum (UV-vis DRS). The visible light absorption ability and the band gap energy of the Ce-x/TiO2 nanofibers could be adjusted by changing the doping amount of Ce. For example, when the mole ratio of Ce/Ti was fixed at 0.03, the absorbance wavelength of the Ce-0.03/TiO2 reached 739 nm, and the corresponding band gap energy was obviously reduced to 1.678 eV. Photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) was used as the probe reaction to evaluate the visible light photocatalytic activity of the Ce-x/TiO2 nanofibers. Compared with the undoped TiO2 nanofiber and commercial TiO2 catalyst (Degussa P25), the Ce-x/TiO2 nanofibers showed the excellent photocatalytic activity. Especially, the degradation degree of RhB using Ce-0.03/TiO2 nanofiber reached 99.59% in 80 min, with corresponding TOC removal efficiency of 77.59%.