Deposition of vanadium-doped black TiO2 nanoparticles on glass beads to enable the degradation of methylene blue under visible light

Vanadium-doped black TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by modified sol-gel method. The characterisation of vanadium doped black TiO2 nanoparticles was carried out using DRS, XRD, and SEM with EDX analysis to determine band gap energy, crystal structure, surface morphology and elemental composition. The nanoparticles were coated on pre cleaned glass beads by dip coating technique. Methylene blue was employed as a model dye to determine the photo-catalytic efficiency of vanadium doped black TiO2 nanoparticles. The photo-catalytic degradation of aqueous methylene blue dye was performed in packed re-circulated photo reactor. The band gap energy of 4 wt% vanadium doped black TiO2 nanoparticles was found to be 2.04 eV, the least among the synthesised nanoparticles. Various degradation process parameters like flow rate, initial concentration of dye and volume of dye were also determined. About 98 % methylene blue dye photo-catalytic degradation was achieved under visible lamp (300 W) illumination for 4.0 wt% vanadium doped black TiO2 photo-catalyst under optimum conditions.