Preparation of Fe3+ Doped High-Ordered TiO2 Nanotubes Arrays with Visible Photocatalytic Activities

Abstract

Inthispaper,theFe3+ dopedrutilephaseTiO2 nanotubesarrays(NTAs)werepreparedina low temperature water-assistant crystallization method. It is noteworthy that the Fe3+ doping hardly hinderseitherthecrystallizationofrutileTiO2 NTAsorthehighly-orderednanotubularmorphologies. Moreover, Fe3+ did not form other compound impurities, which indicated that Fe3+ substitute Ti4+ intothelatticeofTiO2. WiththeintroductionofFe3+,thelightabsorptionrangeofTiO2 NTAsextends from the ultraviolet band to the visible light range. Photocatalytic testing results indicate that Fe3+ doped TiO2 NTAs can effectively improve the degradation rate of methyl orange aqueous solution in visible light, and the TiO2 NTAs with 0.2 mol/L Fe3+ doping exhibits the highest photocatalytic degradation efficiency.