Enhanced photocatalytic performance of Nd3+-doped TiO2 nanosphere under visible light

Nd3+-doped hollow TiO2 samples are synthesized by a template-free method, and display excellent photocatalytic performance. The 1% Nd3+-doped TiO2 sample exhibits the highest degradation rate of 99.14%, which has almost completely degraded methylene blue in 80 min under simulated sunlight. [Display omitted] •Nd3+-doped hollow TiO2 is synthesized by a template-free method (recombined coprecipitation with hydrothermal method).•The doped samples have been confirmed excellent photocatalytic performance by photodegradation experiments.•The 1.0% Nd3+-doped TiO2 sample has been considered the optimum choice owing to its high degradation rate of 99.14%. Nd3+-doped TiO2 nanosphere is synthesized by template-free method (recombined coprecipitation with hydrothermal method), which possesses anatase TiO2 and TiO2(B) nanosphere structure produced during hydrothermal process. After doping different content neodymium ions, the excellent photocatalytic performance of doped samples have been confirmed by subsequent photodegradation experiments, in which the 1.0 mol% Nd3+-TiO2 sample has been considered the optimum choice owing to its high degradation of 99.14% under visible light irradiation in 120 min, it almost completely degraded methylene blue in 80 min under simulated sunlight. This conclusion is contributed to further industrial application of TiO2 in the degradation of sewage.