Abstract
In this study, TiO2 and metal ion-doped TiO2 nanoparticles (M = Fe, Cu, Zn and Zr) were successfully synthesized by the green route using the co-precipitation technique in which titanium tetraisopropoxide (at 5.0 mM concentration) was used as a precursor and the pomegranate peel extract was used as a bio-reductants. The as-prepared nano particles were characterized by different techniques (EDX, XRD, FTIR and TEM). The main goal is to study the effect of the doping cation on the structural and photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide. The different doping nano particles were compared for improving the photocatalytic activity of titanium dioxide. The XRD results, showed that doping of the metal ion in the crystal lattice did not change the high crystallinity of the TiO2 structure, and all the metal ions were incorporated into the structures of titania as well as replaced titanium ion or located at interstitial site. The main goal is to study the effect of the doping cation on the structural and photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide where it was found that the doping process leads to an improvement in the catalytic activity of TiO2 NP by decreasing its gap energy from 3.53 Ev in TiO2 NP to 1.61,1.65 and 1.8 ev for Fe, Cu and Zr doped NP, respectively allowing its use in the visible region of light rather than in the ultraviolet region.