synthesis and characterization of nonmetal-doped tio2 nanoparticles for photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine b dye

A novel series of c-, n-, and f-doped tio2 photocatalysts were fabricated using a simple sol-gel method, utilizing 4-(trifluoromethyl)nicotinic acid (tfna) as a precursor for carbon, nitrogen, and fluorine doping. the resulting materials were characterized using different advanced techniques such as x-ray diffraction (xrd), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (drs), raman spectroscopy, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ft-ir), transmission electron microscopy (tem), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (fesem). the synthesis approach involved the creation of nanoparticles with varying weights of tfna, ranging from 0.3 to 1.6 wt. %, followed by calcination at 400 °c for 120 min in the presence of air. the resulting nanostructures were tested for their efficiency in degrading rhodamine b (rhb) dye under ultraviolet (uv) light irradiation. the experimental findings revealed that the 1.6 wt. % tfna/tio2 composite exhibited exceptional photocatalytic activity, with approximately 87.0 % degradation efficiency towards rhb dye in aqueous solutions under uv light. this remarkable performance can be attributed to the increased lifetime of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and accelerated interfacial charge transfer rates.