Photocatalytic Activity of Fe and Ce Co‐doped Mesoporous TiO2 Catalyst under UV and Visible Light

The catalysts of un‐doped, single‐doped and co‐doped mesoporous titanium dioxide (MTiO2) were prepared by a template method with tetrabutyltitanate (Ti(OC4H9)4) as a Ti source material and Pluronic P123 as a template. The photo‐absorbance of the obtained catalysts was measured by UV‐vis absorption spectroscopy, and the photocatalytic activities of the prepared samples under UV and visible light were estimated by measuring the degradation rate of methyl orange (MO) (50 mg/L) in an aqueous solution. It was shown that the co‐doped MTiO2 could be activated by visible light and could thus be used as an effective catalyst in photo‐oxidation reactions. The effect of Fe and Ce co‐dopants on the material properties was investigated by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and N2 adsorption‐desorption isotherm measurement. The characterizations indicated that the photocatalysts possessed a homogeneous pore diameter of ca. 10 nm with high surface area of ca. 150 m2/g. The photocatalytic activity of MTiO2 co‐doped with Fe and Ce was markedly improved due to the synergistic actions of the two dopants.