Synthesis and photocatalytic activity of Mn-doped TiO2 nanostructured powders under UV and visible light

A straight forward, simple and inexpensive process has been developed by sol–gel method for the synthesis of manganese (Mn) doped and undoped TiO2 photocatalysts. X-ray powder diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed the presence of structural nanoparticles with an average nanocrystalline size of about 20 nm. FT-IR/vis adsorption has shown enhanced sub-band-gap absorption as a function of Mn concentration. The photocatalytic activity of these materials was evaluated by the degradation of a basic Methylene Blue (MB) as organic contaminant. Mn-doped TiO2 powder with molar ratio 0.1:100 was mixed with calcareous filler (5% and 10% respectively) and the photocatalytic activity was evaluated by the degradation of inorganic pollutants such as NOx under UV and visible light.

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► Mn doped TiO2 as photocatalytic material.
► This photo catalytic material lies on the degradation of indoor pollutants such as NO using visible light (vis).
► The synthesis procedure is simple, quick and inexpensive and allows for large scale material composition.
► Amount of dopant influences the efficiency of NO degradation. Activity of 0.1% Mn:TiO2 maintained when embedded in building matrix.