Structural, photochemical and photocatalytic properties of zirconium oxide doped TiO2 nanocrystallites

Composite photocatalysts composed of TiO₂ and ZrO₂ have been prepared via the sol-gel method. The as-prepared nanocomposites are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-vis spectrometry and fluorescence emission spectra. The results shows that TiO₂/ZrO₂ nanocomposites are composed of mainly anatase titania and tetragonal ZrO₂. Incorporating TiO₂ particles with ZrO₂ plays an important role in promoting the formation of nanoparticles with an anatase structure and leads to decreased fluorescence emission intensity. Most of the TiO₂/ZrO₂ nanocomposites exhibited comparable photocatalytic activity compared with commercial TiO₂ for the degradation aqueous methyl orange (MO) under ultraviolet irradiation, while the composite with Zr/Ti mass ratio of 15.2% shows the highest photocatalytic performances. Furthermore, the as-prepared nanocomposites can be reused with little photocatalytic activity loss. Without any further treatment besides rinsing, the photocatalytic activity of TiO₂/ZrO₂ (15.2%) composites is still higher than after five-cycle utilization.