Ru doped anatase titanium dioxide and its photocatalytic activity of rhodamine B / Muhamad Adam Ramli

Pure and ruthenium-doped titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanopartic1es powder were
prepared in this study via liquid deposition method. The Ti02 in this study was
synthesised from the potassium titanyl phosphate powder and boric acid as fluoride
scavenger. The ruthenium element was introduced to the pure Ti02 at different
concentrations. The doped concentrations of Ru were varying at 0.1 M, 0.5 M,
0.025 M, 0.00125 M and 0.00625 M respectively. The samples were characterized
using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron (FESEM) and
UV-Vis spectrophotometer. XRD analysis shows that the Ti02 nanopartic1es
prepared has anatase structure with a dominant high energy (101) basal plane. The
EDX analysis confirms the presence of Ru element in the Ti02 nanopartic1e.
FESEM showed the morphological analysis of the sample. The band gaps of the
samples lie in the theoretical value obtained from the absorbance using UV-Vis
spectrophotometer. Photocatalytic properties of the samples were examined using
degradation of Rhodamine B. It was found that pure Ti02 shows poor photocatalytic
performance and Ru-doped Ti02 shows an enhancement towards photocatalytic
performance. 0.025 M Ru was the optimum concentration while the concentration
above this dopant yields poor result of photocatalytic degradation