Low temperature fabrication of V-doped TiO2 nanoparticles, structure and photocatalytic studies

V-doped TiO(2)nanoparticles were synthesized at low temperature and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy (RS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV-vis spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, respectively. It is found the nanoparticle shape changed from needle, to short stick and then to cubic with the increase of doped V concentration, which was also accompanied by the improvement of crystallinity. The specific surface area (S(BET)) decreased with increasing V content. It is confirmed that V ions can be doped in TiO(2) by substituting Ti(4+) ions, which suppressed the CB --> VB and surface recombination of photoinduced electrons and holes, and a relation was found between the PL spectra and the UV photocatalytic activity. There was an optimum V content for the V-doped TiO(2) to present the best UV-light induced photoactivity, but they were visible-inactive. At last, the effect of the doping V as trapping centers on photocatalysis was investigated in detail, and used to explain the difference between the photocatalysis under the illumination of UV light and visible light.