Effectively dispersed europium oxide dopants in TiO2 aerogel supports for enhanced photocatalytic pollutant degradation

•Eu2O3 doped TiO2 aerogels synthesized under high temperature supercritical drying.•High temperature supercritical drying disperses europium ions in TiO2 support.•Eu2O3 doping enhanced adsorption and photodegradation of salicylic acid.•Photodegradation due to amount of hydroxyl radicals produced.

The influence of supercritical drying and the europium oxide content on the physicochemical properties and the resultant photocatalytic activity of Eu-TiO2 aerogels for the degradation of salicylic acid were explored for the first time. It was demonstrated that the efficiencies might be influenced by a combination of factors such as enhanced adsorption, presence of trap states, and/or suppression of rutile phase formation. The well dispersed europium oxide dopants may act as trap states. A subsequent enhancement of charge separation avails electrons for oxygen attack to form superoxide ions, from which OH radicals can be generated, and are postulated to be primary contributors toward the degradation efficiencies in this study.

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