Effects of process conditions on the structure and optical properties of Zn/Fe/Sn/Sb-TiO2 three dimensional particle-electrodes

In this work, a novel magnetic photocatalysic mesoporous material with excellent photoluminesce properties such as superior light absorption was synthesized using the sol-gel method. With tetrabutyl titanate, zinc acetate, stannic chloride, antimonic chloride and ferric nitrate as precursors, and tri-blocked copolymer F127 as the template, it was demonstrated that if the annealing temperature was at 550 °C, and the annealing time was 120 min, the doping amount of Zn of this material could reach 4.0 at%, leading to a superior luminescence and UV–vis light absorbance. In particular, if the weight of template was set to 1.5 g, the porous structures for the obtained photocatalysic materials were mainly distributed within 1.2 nm to 4.7 nm with a specific surface area larger than 110m2/g, leading to the most excellent absorption.