TiO2/FeTiO3/WO3 Ternary Composite Semiconductor as Efficient Photocatalyst: Structural Designing, Characterization and Investigation of Photocatalytic Efficiency

Abstract

WO3, FeTiO3 and TiO2 photocatalyst prepared by simple sol-gel method followed by thermal treatment at 550°C, 550°C and 450°C for 3 hours respectively. TiO2/FeTiO3/ WO3 ternary composite has shown good activity for the degradation of reactive dyes in UVvisible light than that of binary composites such as TiO2/WO3, TiO2/FeTiO3. The prepared photocatalyst characterized by various techniques. 2 wt% TiO2/FeTiO3/WO3 ternary composite has demonstrated highest activity for the degradation of Reactive Blue 160 (RB 160). The composite photocatalyst also has good reusability; the 2 wt% TiO2/FeTiO3/WO3 photocatalyst completely degraded RB 160 in 120 minutes than that of parent photocatalysts. COD analysis of the degraded dye solution shows more than 70% of dye molecules in 100 mg l-1 reactive dye solution were mineralized in 3 hours. Hence, RB 160 photocatalyst will be an efficient and simplest method for the degradation of organic dyes and other organic pollutants in industrial effluent.