Abstract:
Photoluminescent and self-cleaning properties of an Eu
3+
doped titania–silica–lanthanum phosphate
nanocomposite (Eu-TSL) prepared by an aqueous sol–gel process and films fabricated on glass
substrates by dip coating are investigated in the present work. These nanocomposites containing Eu
3+
as
dopants exhibit red luminescence upon visible light excitation, after heat treatment at 400
C. For an
excitation wavelength of 465 nm, the PL spectra of Eu-TSL show intense peaks at 613 nm (
5
D0–
7
F2),
characteristic of Eu
3+
ions. This red emission has a life time of 0.5 ms. 1 mol% Eu added TSL shows
96% methylene blue dye degradation after two hours UV light exposure which is attributed to the
presence of anatase phase, optimum crystallite size (5.7 nm) and enhanced specific surface area (147 m
2
g
1
). Eu-TSL was found to be five times more efficient in decolourization of methylene blue than EuTiO2 from the reported literature. Eu-TSL retains all the major properties including photoactivity,
transparency ( 97%) and low wettability ( 80
). In addition, red emission could be integrated at very low
europium doping levels (1 mol%). Even though europium doping on titania is reported widely, a
multifunctional luminescent and self-cleaning composition based on Eu-TSL synthesized by an aqueous
sol–gel route is reported for thefirst time
