An Important Phenomenon In Fe2o3-Tio2 Photocatalyst: Ion-Inter-Doping

In this communication, an important phenomenon of ion-inter-doping in semiconductor-coupling photocatalysts is reported. A series of Fe2O3-TiO2 hollow nanofiber materials were successfully prepared via a two-step template-assisted dipping/adsorbing-calcining strategy. During the reaction process, Ti(OC4H8)(4), Fe(NO3)(3)center dot 9H(2)O and defatted cotton were just chosen as Ti source, Fe source, and template, respectively, and no other additives were introduced. Specifically, an ion-inter-doping phenomenon was demonstrated in Fe2O3-TiO2 coupling materials by XRD and TEM results, which referred to Fe3+ ion into TiO2 lattice (Fe3+/TiO2) and Ti4+ ion into Fe2O3 lattice (Ti4+/Fe2O3). Therefore, the as-formed Fe2O3-TiO2 material might be marked as semiconductor-coupling and ion-inter-doping materials (Ti4+/Fe2O3-Fe3+/TiO2), and their photocatalytic performance are affected by ion-inter-doping and semiconductor-coupling.