In this paper, we report the successful synthesis of metal ion-doped TiO2 nanoparticlesvia a simple solution combustion method employing a mixture of ethanol and ethyleneglycol (v/v = 30/20) as the solvent, tetra-n-butyl titanate [Ti(OC4H9)4, TBOT] as the titanium source and oxygen gas in the atmosphere as the oxygen source, in the presence of small amounts of metal ions such as Cu2+, Mn2+, Ce3+ and Sn4+. The as-obtained products were characterized by means of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of various metal ion-doped products were investigated. Experiments showed that the metal ion-doped TiO2 nanoparticles presented a stronger photocatalytic ability for the degradation of organic dyes, including Pyronine B, Safranine T and Methylene blue (MB), under visible light/254 nm UV light irradiation than commercial P25 within the same time.
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