Investigation of crystalline and optical properties of TiO2 nanoparticles with cerium atoms prepared by sol-gel chemical method

Transition metals doped-titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles can change their physical properties. In this study, pure TiO2 and Ce-doped TiO2 nanoparticles with impurity percentages of 20%, were made using tetra titanium isopropoxide (TTIP) and cerium nitrate precursors. The structure of the samples was determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The crystalline structure of the samples was detected as tetragonal structure in the anatase phase and the XRD results also showed that the size of the doped sample decreases. The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed the uniformity of nanoparticles. The results of the transition electron microscopy (TEM) analysis displayed that doped nanoparticles are quasi-spherical at 37 nm. Diffiused reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) analysis revealed that the band gap energy decreases to 2.21 eV for doped sample. The results of photoluminescence (PL) analysis demonstrated that the intensity of PL decreases for doped sample, which reduces the recombination of the electron-hole and increases the photocatalytic activity of Ce-doped TiO2 nanoparticles.