Weak-visible-light-driven Fe doped TiO2 photocatalyst prepared by coprecipitation method and degradation of methyl orange

Fe doped TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by coprecipitation method under calcination temperatures between 200 °C and 400 °C with different Fe doping concentration from 0 to 1.8 at.%. The crystal structure, morphology, optical properties, energy band gap (Eg) and photocatalytic performance of synthesized nanoparticles were calculated and characterized by first-principles calculations, XRD, TG-DSC, FTIR, FESEM, EDS, TEM, SAED, XPS, UV–Vis and PL spectroscopy. Results showed that Fe doped TiO2 nanoparticles had pure anatase structure with spherical morphology of 4–12 nm in crystallite size which increased with calcination temperatures. The Eg of Fe doped TiO2 was decreased from 3.07 eV to 2.71 eV by the increase of Fe doping concentration. The maximum degradation efficiency of methyl orange (MO) was as high as 46.3% for Fe doped TiO2 nanoparticles calcined at 300 °C with Fe doping concentration of 0.3 at.% under 15 W visible light irradiation.