Cerium and carbon-sulfur codoped mesoporous TiO2 nanocomposites for boosting visible light photocatalytic activity

Ce and C-S codoped mesoporous TiO2 nanocomposites were synthesized via a sol-gel method integrated with an evaporation-induced self-assembly approach. The basic physicochemical characteristics of the synthetic samples were analyzed via a series of characterization techniques. The results reveal that C-S and Ce codoping on mesoporous TiO2 enhances the photocatalytic activity owing to the synergistic effect caused by narrowing the band gap, enhancing adsorption, trapping and transferring the excited e-/h+ pairs and suppressing the recombination of e-/h+ pairs. Furthermore, the obtained C,S-TiO2/CeO2 materials exhibit large specific surface areas and numerous pores which not only effectively improve the adsorption-enrichment capability, but also supply multi-dimensional mass and electron transfer channels. The photodegradation efficiency of RhB by C,S-TiO2/CeO2 within 40 min is nearly 100%, and its degradation efficiency is 6.63 times that of undoped TiO2. Recycling experiments show that mesoporous C,S-TiO2/CeO2 shows excellent recoverability and stability. Furthermore, by trapping experiments, .O2-, h+ and .OH are the predominant active species and a possible reaction mechanism is proposed.(c) 2022 Chinese Society of Rare Earths. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.