Studies on preparation and characterization of Fe/TiO₂ catalyst in photocatalysis applications

A Fe/TiO2 photocatalyst was synthesized and used as the catalyst in paraquat degradation as a test reaction to examine the photo-properties. The TEM, XRD, FTIR, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectrometer, XPS and BET surface area analysis methods were used as the characterization techniques to investigate the physical and chemical properties of the prepared catalyst. Moreover, some of the preparation parameters, such as the preparation method, the content of Fe loading, thermal treatment and source of light irradiation, were also examined. According to the characterization and the expressed catalytic activity, it was found that the factor that significantly responded to the catalyst activity was the –OH surface species on the catalyst surface. Moreover, the lower band gap energy of the Fe/TiO2 catalyst was also an important parameter that gave high catalytic properties because of the higher light adsorption. The preparation scheme and the photodegradation mechanism were proposed.