Mesoporous TiO2 ceramic films have been fabricated on titanium plates by the microplasma oxidation method. To increase the photocatalytic activity of the films, Eu(NO3)3 of different concentrations are added to the H2SO4 electrolyte solution. X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy techniques, reused and regenerated experiments are applied to characterize the modified films. Rhodamine B is used to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of the modified films. The results show that Eu ions are found in the porous TiO2 films, and the film has high photocatalytic activity, good adherence to substrate, better reuse and regeneration properties.

In this research, thin bismuth oxide films were prepared through the sol–gel method. In order to study the influence of bismuth oxide crystal phases on the photocatalytic properties of bismuth oxide films, these films were annealed at different temperatures and then applied to decompose a typical textile industry pollutant (Rhodamine B). Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and profilometry were applied to characterize these films. It has been found that different annealing temperatures cause the transformation of different bismuth oxide crystal phases, which leads to the different removals of Rhodamine B photolyzed using bismuth oxide films as photocatalyst.

Mesoporous titanium dioxide films were fabricated on titanium plates by the micro-plasma oxidation method. To increase the photo-catalytic activity of the films, Eu(NO3)3 of different concentrations were added to the H2SO4 electrolyte solution. Eu incorporation was found in the porous titania films. Furthermore, Na2SiO3 of different concentrations was also added to the electrolyte solution, which led to Si incorporation into the film as well. A model textile industry pollutant (Rhodamine B) was used to study the photo-catalytic properties of the modified films. The photo-catalytic activity of these films turned out to be improved by the additives to the electrolyte solution. The enhanced photo-catalytic activity might result from (i) the increased porosity, producing more reactive sites to absorb and oxide pollutants; (ii) electron trapping at Eu sites suppressing the e−/h+ pair recombination, therefore, improving the photo-catalytic processes.

Micro-porous TiO2 ceramic films have been grown on titanium plates by the micro-plasma oxidation method with the electrolyte of H2SO4. The influence of La3+ ion addition in the electrolyte on the photo-catalytic activities was investigated. The results showed that titanium dioxide thin films produced with La3+ addition electrolyte exhibit higher photo-activity than pure electrolyte for the oxidation of rhodamine B. The removal of rhodamine B reaches 90% for 30 min when La3+ addition concentrate is 0.05 g/L. Experimental results of X-ray diffraction and atom force microscopy show that the increase in activity is related to change in the lattice parameters and cell volume.

Mesoporous thin titanium dioxide films have been prepared on titanium plates through micro-plasma oxidation. To increase the films' photo-catalytic activity, La ions with different concentrations (0, 0.025, 0.005, 0.075, 0.1g/L) were added into the H(2)SO(4) electrolyte solution. X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy techniques were applied to characterize the modified films. A kind of typical textile industry pollutant (Rhodamine B) was used to evaluate the photo-catalytic activity of the films. The results showed that this activity of the films had been improved by adding La ions into the electrolyte solution. The enhanced photo-catalytic activities might be resulted from the increase of mesopores' number, producing more reactive sites to absorb and oxidize pollutants. Also, the improvement was related to the forming of titanium dioxide lattice distortion, which could accept more photoexcitated holes and produce more strong surface free radicals to oxidate adsorptive molecules.