Synthesis and Photocatalytic Activity of TiO₂/V₂O₅ Composite Catalyst Doped with Rare Earth Ions

TiO₂/V₂O₅ catalyst doped with rare earth ions was prepared by sol-gel method. Titanium tetrapropoxide and vanadium pentoxide were used as precursor of the composite catalyst and rare earth ions were used as dopant. The crystal phases, crystalline sizes, microstructure, absorption spectra of doped composite catalyst were studied by XRD, EDS, FT-IR and UV-Vis. Photoactivity of the prepared catalyst under ultraviolet irradiation were evaluated by degradation of methyl orange (MO) in aqueous solution. It is shown that the prepared catalyst is composed of anatase and rutile. The rare earth ions are highly dispersed in composite catalyst. All the doped catalysts appear higher photocatalytic activity than TiO₂/V₂O₅ catalyst and catalyst doped with Ce⁴⁺ present the best activity to MO.