Abstract
Pure and doped transparent monoliths of TiO2 were successfully prepared in anhydrous medium by sol-gel method. Phase, morphology, and optic properties were characterized determined by several characterizations: FTIR, XRD, RAMAN spectroscopy, DRS spectroscopy, BET analysis, and SEM. XRD diffractograms show that thermal stability of TiO2 Anatase phase increase with rare earth (RE) doping. Same analysis proves that RE doping decreases the crystalline size from 35.29 nm for undoped TiO2 to 24.70 nm for 2% Pr-TiO2 and 22.89 nm for 2% Er-TiO2. BET surface areas increase as function of doping amount. DRS analysis shows that RE doping generates news photonic absorption and increases the direct band gaps up to 3.40 eV for 2% Pr-TiO2 and 3.43 eV for 2% Er-TiO2. The adsorption of IBPF on x% RE-TiO2 follows the Langmuir model for all samples. The D-R modeling proves the physisorption phenomena. The photocatalytic oxidation of ibuprofen by x% RE-TiO2 catalysts follows the pseudo-first order kinetic pattern. Solar degradation of IBPF experiments shows the enhancement of catalytic properties of TiO2 by RE doping. Life cycles study shows the possibility of reusing doped photocatalysts up to 10 cycles with a degradation performance greater than 50%.