TiO2 nanofibers doped with rare earth elements and their photocatalytic activity

In the present study rare earth doped (Ln3+–TiO2, Ln = La, Ce and Nd) TiO2 nanofibers were prepared by the sol–gel electrospinning method and characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX, TEM, and UV-DRS. The photocatalytic activity of the samples was evaluated by Rhodamine 6G (R6G) dye degradation under UV light irradiation. XRD analysis showed that all the synthesized pure and doped titania nanofibers contain pure anatase phase at 500 °C but at 700 °C it shows both anatase and rutile phase. XRD result also shows that Ln3+-doped titania probably inhibits the phase transformation. The diameter of nanofibers for all samples ranges from 200 to 700 nm. It was also observed that the presence of rare-earth oxides in the host TiO2 could decrease the band gap and accelerate the separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs, which eventually led to higher photocatalytic activity. To sum up, our study demonstrates that Ln3+-doped TiO2 samples exhibit higher photocatalytic activity than pure TiO2 whereas Nd3+-doped TiO2 catalyst showed the highest photocatalytic activity among the rare earth doped samples.