Characterization and photocatalytic activity of lanthanon-doped nano-TiO2

Nano-TiO2 powder and TiO2 optical films with photocatalytic activity were prepared by sol-gel progress. Eu3+,Nd3+,Tb3+,Dy3+ were adoped to enhance the photocatalytic activity. The modality of the films was observed with AFM morphology; Three-dimensional picture of TiO2 by AFM (RMS=2.83nm) showed its fine quality. Samples annealed at different temperatures were analyzed with UV-VIS spectroscopy. The results indicated that the absorption of the sample annealed at 500oC is strong because it is composed of anatase and rutile sized about 10~100nm (ref. XRD). XRD was used to analyze the structure of TiO2. The results showed that rutile phase is precipitated as well as anatase of TiO2,and anatase is about 66wt%,and the average dimension is 26nm; Alumina-supported vanadium oxide catalyst (V2O5/Al2O3) was prepared conventionally by impregnating alumina with an aqueous solution of ammonium metavanadate(NH4VO3). Cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone are key reactants for the production of adipic acid and caprolactam. The photo-oxidation of cyclohexane on titanium dioxide and over V2O5/Al2O3 was investigated in neat cyclohexane to synthesize cyclohexanone and cyclohexanol. The reaction also features the photocatalytic activity of Nano-TiO2 and V2O5/Al2O3. The results indicate that titanium dioxide doped with Eu or Tb exhibits the high selectivity to partial oxidation compounds. The characteristic of the reaction over V2O5/Al2O3 is a reasonable (K/A) ketone/alcohol ratio.