Photocatalytic activity of Yb, Er, Ce‐codoped TiO2 for degradation of Rhodamine B and 4‐chlorophenol

BACKGROUND Photodegradation through an advanced oxidation process gives promising prospects for environmental protection. Although titanium dioxide (TiO2) is considered as an excellent photonic material candidate, however, the band gap of TiO2 is 3.2 eV which limits its effective applications. Various approaches have been developed for enhancing the utilization of TiO2 such as coupling with other narrow bandgap semiconductors and metal ions. We developed a novel ytterbium (Yb), erbium (Er), cerium (Ce)‐codoped TiO2 material as a high‐performance photocatalyst for efficient degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) and 4‐chlorophenol (4‐CP) by hydrothermal technique. Yb, Er, and Ce ions served as electron collectors for the interfacial electrons transferred from TiO2, thus enhancing the separation of the photo‐induced electron–hole pairs. RESULTS The photocatalytic activity of the prepared TiO2–Er0.15Yb0.15Ce0.14 sample is higher than those of undoped TiO2, TiO2–Ce0.3 and TiO2–Er0.15Yb0.15 samples under optimal condition. Our developed catalyst degraded 98% of 0.04 mM RhB and 95% of 0.6 mM 4‐CP under white light irradiation for 60 and 240 min, respectively. Moreover, a probable photodegradation mechanism is proposed. CONCLUSION TiO2–Er0.15Yb0.15Ce0.14 with high photocatalytic degradation efficiency under white light irradiation was synthesized by a hydrothermal method. Yb3+, Er3+, Ce4+ played a role as photo‐induced electron collectors to suppress the recombination of photo‐induced electron–hole pairs. The synthesized material has a high potential as an efficient photocatalyst for toxic pollutants in aqueous media. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry