The thin films of TiO2 doped by Mn non-uniformly were prepared by sol-gel method under process control. In our preceding study, we investigated in detail, the effect of doping mode on the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 films showing that Mn non-uniform doping can greatly enhance the activity. In this study we looked at the effect of doping concentration on the photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 films. In this paper, the thin films were characterized by UV-vis spectrophotometer and electrochemical workstation. The activity of the photocatalyst was also evaluated by photocatalytic degradation rate of aqueous methyl orange under UV radiation. The results illustrate that the TiO2 thin film doped by Mn non-uniformly at the optimal dopant concentration (0.7 at %) is of the highest activity, and on the contrary, the activity of those doped uniformly is decreased. As a comparison, in 80 min, the degradation rate of methyl orange is 62 %, 12 % and 34 % for Mn non-uniform doping film (0.7 at %), the uniform doping film (0.7 at %) and pure titanium dioxide film, respectively. We have seen that, for the doping and the pure TiO2 films, the stronger signals of open circuit potential and transient photocurrent, the better photocatalytic activity. We also discusse the effect of dopant concentration on the photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 films in terms of effective separation of the photon-generated carriers in the semiconductor.
New powerful sources and advanced analytical techniques have been considered in the last decade to face up the continuously increasing scientific demands, in particular, in materials science. As an example, nano- science and nanotechnology researches are characterized by ultimate spatial resolution, fast and ultrafast time-resolved analysis, but the complexity of the investigated phenomena requires new analytical capabilities and new experimental techniques were introduced in the research arena. The availability all over the world of brilliant synchrotron radiation sources offers incredible opportunities. Many challenging experiments were made possible by these sources and understanding of many complex dynamical problems was obtained. Nevertheless, a strong demand of new analytical approaches, mainly based on concurrent and possibly simultaneous time-resolved experimental techniques, is emerging. Pioneering time resolved experiments combining X-ray and infrared radiation with a conventional source were performed more than a decade ago. Nowadays, many beamlines at third generation synchrotron radiation facilities are equipped with conventional sources to allow complementary techniques and the strategy of a concurrent analysis is mandatory in the investigation of many phenomena in frontier multidisciplinary researches. Moreover, new opportunities will be available by means of concurrent spectroscopic experiments investigating complex phenomena on a short timescale, from the sub-second to the microsecond time domain. We will present and discuss researches where the combination of IR and X-ray simultaneous experiments may return unique information on complex dynamical processes and phase transitions occurring in materials science. Finally, we will briefly describe the conceptual layout of a synchrotron radiation beamline to perform concurrent IR and X-ray experiments.
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