One-step hydrothermal synthesis of mesoporous Ce-doped anatase TiO2 nanoparticles with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Mesoporous Ce-doped TiO2 nanoparticles with different content of Ce are prepared by one-step hydrothermal method. The samples are characterized by XRD, TEM, Raman, XPS, BET, PL and UV-vis measurements. The results show that TiO2 doped with Ce can reduce the crystallite size. Under UV irradiation, the Ce-doped TiO2 samples exhibit much higher photocatalytic activity than pure TiO2 and commercial P25 for the degradation of Rhodamine (RhB). The maximum photocatalytic reaction rate constant for Ce-doped TiO2 sample is obtained as 0.021 min(-1). The unique photocatalytic properties of Ce-doped TiO2 are attributed to the improvement of photogenerated electron-hole pairs separation efficiency and formation of more reactive oxygen species owing to the presence of Ce3+/Ce4+. A degradation mechanism is proposed for the degradation of RhB for Ce-doped TiO2 photocatalyst under UV light.