Toxicologia Ambiental e Analítica

Magnesium Doped Titania for Photocatalytic Degradation of Dyes in Visible Light

Abstract

Balaram Kiran Avasarala, Siva Rao Tirukkovalluri and Sreedhar Bojja

Magnesium doped titanium dioxide (Mg+2-TiO2) with varying magnesium weight percentages (0.25 - 1.0 wt.%) has been synthesized by sol-gel method and is characterized by XRD, UV-Visible, XPS, SEM and FT-IR methods. XRD data has shown anatase crystalline phase in Mg+2-TiO2 catalysts indicating that Mg+2 did not influence the crystal patterns of TiO2. Absorption shift due to the presence of Mg+2 ions in the TiO2 structure is significant. SEM image revealed that doped catalyst has smaller particle size and higher surface area than undoped TiO2. FT-IR spectral study along with XPS established the substitution of Mg+2 into TiO2 lattice. The photocatalytic efficiency of the synthesized catalysts was investigated by performing photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange dye (MO) under visible light irradiation and it has been found that the Mg+2-TiO2 catalysts possess better catalytic activity than undoped TiO2. The effect of dopant concentration, pH, catalyst, dosage and pollutant concentrations was studied for obtaining optimal degradation conditions.