Synthesis, Characterization and Photoelectric Properties of Fe2O3 Incorporated TiO2 Photocatalyst Nanocomposites

Abstract

In the present work we report the sol-gel synthesis of pure TiO2 and (TiO2)1−x(Fe2O3)x nanocomposites with different Fe2O3 contents (x = 0, 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 for pure TiO2, Fe2O3 incorporated 0.1, 0.5, and pure Fe2O3 which are denoted as PT, 0.1F, 0.5F, and PF, respectively). The structural, morphological, optical, and surface texture of the prepared nanocomposites were characterized using various techniques. The structural studies confirm the strong influence of Fe2O3 contents on the crystallite sizes and dislocation values. The size of the crystallites was increased by the increase in Fe2O3 contents. The bandgap values elucidated from DRS analysis were decreased from 3.15 eV to 1.91 eV with increasing Fe2O3 contents. The N2-Physorption analysis has confirmed the mesoporous nature of the samples with a comparable specific surface area of 35 m2/g. The photoelectrochemical measurements (CV, CA and EIS) were performed to assess the photoelectric properties of the prepared materials. It was found that the PT samples have the highest catalytic activity and photocurrent response compared to other composites. The reduction in current density was as follows: 2.8, 1.65, 1.5 and 0.9 mA/cm2, while the photocurrent response was ca. 800, 450, 45, 35 µA/cm2 for PT, 0.1F, 0.5F and PF samples, respectively. The EIS results showed that the (TiO2)1−x(Fe2O3)x nanocomposites exhibit lower charge transfer resistance than pure titania and hematite samples.