Surface properties and photoactivity of TiO2 treated with electron beam

The improvement of the TiO2-photoactivitiy by electron beam treatment (1 MeV) as a function of the absorbed radiation dose (MGy) is reported. The radiation-induced effects in the TiO2 crystal structure, e.g. change of the Ti3+/Ti4+ ratio, increase of the photoactivity, etc. were investigated. Three methods were implemented in this respect: for the change of the TiO2 crystal structure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy were applied. The photocatalytic activity of the EB-treated TiO2 was tested by taking the degree of methylene blue photodegradation as a measure of the achieved effect. The obtained experimental data of all testing methods showed that in TiO2 at an absorbed dose of 0.5 MGy optimum changes in crystal structure of the catalyst occur, resulting in the highest photocatalytic efficiencies.