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Preparation of Pd-loaded La-doped TiO2 nanotubes and investigation of their photocatalytic activity under visible light

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Abstract

Orthorhombic titanic acid nanotubes (TAN) have large BET surface area and small-diameter one-dimensional nanotubular morphology, so they can work as a good supporter and a precursor of TiO2. However, in our former research, we found that calcination of TAN to anatase TiO2 would destroy the nanotubular structure and decrease the BET surface area sharply. In this work, we utilized the pillar effect of the foreign nanoparticles (La2O3) to keep the nanotubular morphology of TiO2, and obtained the anatase TiO2 nanotubes with large BET surface area. For improving the photocatalytic activity, Pd nanoparticles were loaded as the electron traps on the surface of La-doped TiO2 by photo-deposition method. The photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, diffuse reflectance spectra, and N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms measurement. Their photocatalytic activities were evaluated by the removal of propylene under visible light irradiation (λ ≥ 420 nm). The results showed that the photocatalytic activity of Pd-loaded La-doped TiO2 nanotubes improved effectively compared with that of La-doped TiO2 and pure TiO2.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21103042), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (No. 20114103120001), the Key Laboratory Foundation of Henan Province (122300413205), and the Postdoctoral Scientific Research Foundation of Henan Univerisity (BH2011054).

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  1. Key Laboratory for Special Functional Materials, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China

    Lanlan Zong, Qiuye Li, Jiwei Zhang, Xiaodong Wang & Jianjun Yang

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  1. Lanlan Zong
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  2. Qiuye Li
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  3. Jiwei Zhang
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  4. Xiaodong Wang
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  5. Jianjun Yang
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Correspondence to Qiuye Li.

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Zong, L., Li, Q., Zhang, J. et al. Preparation of Pd-loaded La-doped TiO2 nanotubes and investigation of their photocatalytic activity under visible light. J Nanopart Res 15, 2042 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-013-2042-2

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