Highly effective Fe-doped TiO2 nanoparticles for removal of toxic organic dyes under visible light illumination

This article addresses the synthesis of Fe3+ doped TiO2 nanoparticles with variations of molar concentrations of Fe3+ and their adequate use as potential photocatalysts for Photocatalysis applications. Synthesized photocatalysts were characterized thoroughly by different analytical techniques in terms of morphological, chemical, structural, crystalline, optical, electronic structure, surface area etc properties. The occurrence of red shift phenomenon of the energy band gap attributes to the transfer of charges and transition between the d electrons of dopant and conduction band (CB) or valence band (VB) of TiO2. The doping of Fe3+ ions generates more trap sites for charge carriers with the surface trap sites. Thorough experimental conclusions revealed that the Fe3+ ions necessarily regulate the catalytic property of TiO2 nanomaterial. The obtained total degradation efficiency rate of Methylene Blue (MB) was 93.3% in the presence of 0.1 M Fe3+ in the host material and for Malachite Green Oxalate the efficiency was 100% in the presence of 0.05 M and 0.1 M Fe(3+)in the host material. In both the cases the total visible light irradiation time was 90 min. The adsorption properties of the photocatalysts have been also performed in a dark for 90 min in the presence of MB dye. However, till now there are hardly reported photocatalysts which shows complete degradation of these toxic organic dyes by visible light driven photocatalysis. of potential values of valence and conduction band shows the production of active oxidizing species for hydrogen yield and the possible mechanism of the Schottky barrier has been proposed. A schematic diagram of visible light driven Photocatalysis has been pictured showing degradation activity of Fe3+-TiO2 catalysts sample.

Automated summary

This study focuses on the synthesis of Fe3+ doped TiO2 nanoparticles with different molar concentrations of Fe3+ and their potential use as photocatalysts. The photocatalysts were thoroughly characterized using various analytical techniques to determine their morphological, chemical, structural, and optical properties. The presence of Fe3+ ions resulted in a red shift phenomenon, indicating the transfer of charges between the dopant and TiO2. Experimental results showed that Fe3+ ions regulate the catalytic property of TiO2 nanomaterials, and achieved high degradation efficiency rates for Methylene Blue and Malachite Green Oxalate under visible light irradiation.