Alkaline earth metal doped nanoporous TiO2 for enhanced photocatalytic mineralisation of bisphenol-A

Magnesium and barium doped TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesised by sol-gel technique. The materials were characterised by XRD, BET, UV-Vis, FT-IR, SEM and TEM techniques. The pure TiO2 nanoparticles gave both anatase and rutile phases together, but the presence of either Mg2+ or Ba2+ metal ion in TiO2 gave only anatase phase. The framework substitution of Mg2+ in TiO2 was established by XRD and FT-IR techniques. However, Ba2+ was retained only on the surface of TiO2 as BaCO3 and the absence of framework substitution of Ba2+ in TiO2 was evident from XRD and FT-IR analysis. The band gap values of Mg2+ and Ba2+ doped nano TiO2 were higher than the parent nano TiO2. The photocatalytic activity in the degradation of bisphenol-A was found to be higher for metal doped nano TiO2 than both pure nano TiO2 and commercial TiO2 (Degussa P-25).