Preparation of Fe3+-doped TiO2 nanoparticles and its photocatalytic activity under UV light

The Fe3+-doped and undoped TiO2 nanoparticles have been prepared by sol–gel route using ferric nitrate aqueous solution and tetrabutyl titanate. The nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX and UV–vis DRS techniques. The results showed that the Fe3+-doped TiO2 possess the anatase structures, which were composed of 8–11 nm of crystal sizes. The photocatalytic activity of the nanoparticles under UV light was investigated by measuring the photodegradation of phenol in aqueous dispersion. The 0.5 mol% Fe doping exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity in this study. An attempt has been made to correlate the degradation of phenol with partition coefficient of phenol in sodium dodecyl sulfate micelles and water as a function of irradiation time.