Photocatalytic Degradation of Rhodamine B Under Visible Light Irradiation by TiO2 Doped Layered Zirconium Phosphates

TiO2 doped layered zirconium phosphates were prepared by the hydrofluoric acid (HF) method and its photocatalytic performance was investigated in this study. Through the introduction of octylamine which acts as the intercalation and exfoliation reagent in the process, TiO2 could be uniformly generated and dispersed on the zirconium phosphate matrix through tetrabutyl titanate hydrolysis and calcination. The nano-scale TiO2 was obtained by applying the appropriate ratio of tetrabutyl titanate and layered zirconium phosphate in reaction. XRD, N2-sorption, FT-IR, UV-vis, SEM and TEM were used to characterize the structure and phtocatalytic properties of the samples. The photocatalytic performance of synthesized nano-scale TiO2 doped zirconium phosphates was studied by degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB). It is found that the scavenging rate of RhB could be up to 65% within 90 min under the visible light irradiation due to the relatively large active surface area and compact size of TiO2. This study highlights the potential application of TiO2 doped layered zirconium phosphate as a novel photocatalyst in photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants.