Synthesis of Bi2O3-doped and TiO2-doped porous Lava for photocatalytic studies

The titanium dioxide (TiO2) and bismuth oxide-doped (Bi2O3) porous lava composites were prepared by bath reaction and calcined at 450 degrees C for 3 h. The prepared composites were later coated on glass substrate by dip coating method. The morphology and phase constituents of TiO2 and Bi2O3 coated layer were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The photocatalytic properties of TiO2 and Bi2O3 compositions on porous lava composites were evaluated by measuring the degradation ratio of methylene blue (MB) dye in under UV irradiation. The results revealed the good catalytic performance of TiO2-doped and Bi2O3-doped on porous lava powders occurs within 60 minutes without the use of UV irradiation. This indicated that by doping the TiO2 and Bi2O3 on porous lava powders helped to achieve a high photocatalytic activity. Thus, the composite materials were likely considered as potential candidates for using in semiconductor and biomaterial applications. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.